Inventive and most original, full of arresting images and unpredictable developments, this flick has one fatal flaw.
The whole progression of the story is predicated on the character Nagiko's obsessive power over others. One would have to have the beauty and fascination of ten Mata Haris to carry off this woman's singular willfulness. But the actress who impersonates Nagiko has none of that. She is a reasonably pretty female with little or no personal magnetism that one can discern. Her high-pitched voice and peevish, juvenile enunciation of the English language are singularly irritating. At one point she is called by the script to scream out the name Jerome a dozen times (she pronounces it "J'roam"): she sounds like a hysterical high school student, or perhaps a dental assistant whose finger has been drilled through.
As a result of this flaw, the spectator is bewildered by the sight of two dozen men running around feverishly trying to execute this woman's whims. It makes nonsense of the whole situation.
Ewan McGregor is sweet and charismatic (and lovely to look at) as the much screamed about Jeromeone wonders what did he ever see in the aggravating Nagiko.
The whole progression of the story is predicated on the character Nagiko's obsessive power over others. One would have to have the beauty and fascination of ten Mata Haris to carry off this woman's singular willfulness. But the actress who impersonates Nagiko has none of that. She is a reasonably pretty female with little or no personal magnetism that one can discern. Her high-pitched voice and peevish, juvenile enunciation of the English language are singularly irritating. At one point she is called by the script to scream out the name Jerome a dozen times (she pronounces it "J'roam"): she sounds like a hysterical high school student, or perhaps a dental assistant whose finger has been drilled through.
As a result of this flaw, the spectator is bewildered by the sight of two dozen men running around feverishly trying to execute this woman's whims. It makes nonsense of the whole situation.
Ewan McGregor is sweet and charismatic (and lovely to look at) as the much screamed about Jeromeone wonders what did he ever see in the aggravating Nagiko.