I reviewed Vibrator a while back, and you could say I didn’t really care for it. Kino now having sent me a review copy of their DVD, I figured I would check it out again. Since my initial review I’ve learned that actress Shinobu Terashima won a best actress award for her performance in Vibrator the year it was released, and the film itself was on many a critic’s top of the year list. Heck, even Tom Mes called the film “one of the most universally resonant and important and downright important statements cinema today can hope to deliver.” Could I have been that wrong?

First, let’s see my old review of the film:

I do my best to see good in films these days. I think I’ve come a long way from my cranky green critic self. But Vibrator has brought out the cranky in me. It is an absolutely terrible film. Plodding, shallow, and self important, it is an absolute chore to sit through.

Lauded as “Japan’s Answer to Lost in Translation“, another tale of spoiled, ignorant losers awash in the seas of travel, Vibrator epitomizes the type of trendy VH1 Pop-existential garbage that’s so popular right now. It features a completely vacuous heroine, whose superficial loneliness (nothing even close to that explored in Babel) drives her to hit the road with a “cool” truck driver, hand picked by her at a gas station quick-e-mart. What follows is two hours of the most tedious road trip cum mental patient nonsense you’ve ever seen, only with the inclusion of tasteful blowjobs and the metaphysical pissings necessary to satisfy the sexually frustrated art house crowd. It’s like Clerks 2, only the 30-something failure in question is supposed to be tragically hip rather than the brunt of the joke. You just want to shake the lead and say “Maybe you wouldn’t feel so damn lonely if you got a bit of an education, an opinion, and a fucking job.”

Phew. It feels good to get that out. I guess I should say something positive about the production. If anything, the visual style, while a bit too western MTV for me, was somewhat interesting to look at, and…… That’s really about it. If you’re thinking about seeing Vibrator, think again. It’s two hours of your life that you won’t get back.

And now, having seen it again, what do I think? I believe I was quite right the first time; the glowing praise of the critics is merely the over exuberant proclamations of single film-buffs enamored with the prospect of a road trip with a loose, psychologically vulnerable woman. Vibrator is a terribly pretentious film, focusing on two pathetic, emotionally retarded people yakking about absolutely nothing for 90 minutes. I don’t afford stupid people well (Note to potential future employers: this is not completely true. I tolerate stupid people in the workplace just fine), and spending two hours watching the vacuous Shinobu Terashima is not my idea of fun. Just a single look in her dead eyes reveals a disturbing lack of mental faculties — there’s nothing going on in this woman’s head. Similarly, her performance, if you can even call it that, is as lacking as my expertise in horticulture. As to her winning a best actress award for her role? I’m calling a Halle Berry, “Make me feel good” on this one. Nao Omori (Ichi the Killer) does a slightly better job acting wise, but his character’s lack of drive or integrity was equally off-putting. Every criticism in my above review holds.

However, there are some plusses I would like to point out. The translation on the Kino release of Vibrator is miles better than that of the original Japanese DVD, and does a better job conveying what little story there is. The cinematography, which I lumped into “visual style” in my capsule, is fairly decent, though I don’t know how much effort it really takes to make endless stretches of road look interesting. And finally, I realize that as much as I violently dislike this movie now, there is a possibility I might have liked it in my early film-school days, back when I was grooving to the mental-disorder indie films such as Niagra, Niagra. If you’re into that sort of thing, by all means, check out Vibrator. However, if you have any satisfaction with your current station in life, have outgrown adolescent self-confliction, or possess any higher aspirations than simply learning to drive a truck, you’ll want to skip this film.

The DVD.
As much as I dislike the film, I like Kino’s transfer of Vibrator. Similar to the improvement in translation, the visuals look miles better than my old region 2 DVD. It’s crisp, clean, and all around good stuff.

The DVD is fairly light on extras, but includes a bio and filmography for director Ryuichi Hiroki. Strangely enough, the disc doesn’t even include the film’s original trailer, which is quite possibly better than the completed film.

All in all, this is an okay presentation for a terribly pretentious film. If you liked Lost in Translation, it’s possible that you’ll like this picture. However, if you’re at all like me, I’d say skip it.

Oh, and one last thing. If you do decide to go against my advice and pick up a copy of the film, here’s the amazon.com link. A regular search for the film’s title brings up a whole host of things not safe for work.

About the Author

Chris Nelson has been a film fanatic since age six. A former film and English major, he is now a Software Engineer and contract Technical Writer living in the Silicon Valley.