★★★★ out of ★★★★★
Intensity: 🩸🩸🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸
Directed by Takeshi Kushida
Writer/director Takeshi Kushida follows up his captivating Woman of the Photographs (Japan, 2020) with another fascinating character study of decidedly unusual people in My Mother’s Eyes (Japan, 2023), which blends psychological and physical horror in a remarkable studied but immediate manner.
Single mother Hitomi (Akane Ono) was a professional cellist but gave up her career to support her teen daughter Eri (Mone Shitara), who is also adept at the instrument. There is tension between the two, at first unspoken, but when Hitomi’s progressive vision loss results in an automobile accident, that tension mounts as she becomes totally blind and Eri is left paralyzed from the neck down.
After Hitomi is fitted with a secretive type of new contact lens by scientist Wanibuchu (Shûsaku Uchida) that restores her vision and also transmits what she sees to a VR headset worn by Eri and other handheld devices, her every move and word is dictated by her daughter in a symbiotic relationship that grows increasingly bizarre, especially when Wanibuchu’s son Satoshi (Takuma Izumi) and Hitomi enter a physical relationship.
Kushida deftly examines the possible pitfalls of technology and the lack of privacy to which they can lead, blending thoughtfully rendered and finely crafted family drama with a near-futuristic flavor. A bit of science fiction is at play here with the contact lenses, and it meshes with the aforementioned elements as well as doomed romance, demons from the past, and surreal imagery, leading to a shocking climax. Beautifully shot, artfully directed and framed, and masterfully acted, My Mother’s Eyes is a haunting film boasting images and concepts that will linger long after viewing it.
Review by Joseph Perry
MY MOTHER’S EYES screened as part of the 2023 Pigeon Shrine FrightFest, which ran August 24–28 in London. For more information, visit https://frightfest.co.uk/.
