2/5 stars
Japanese singer Aina the End lands the lead role in director Shunji Iwai’s latest drama, as a traumatised musician navigating the aftermath of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami that struck the northeast of the country’s main island, Honshu.
Based on Iwai’s own novel, Kyrie is an effective showcase for the former Bish idol group member’s distinctive husky vocals, but the film’s jumbled chronology makes for a needlessly confusing watch.
Its disorientating structure is made worse by the fact that Aina plays two roles in the film: Kyrie, a young woman in her early twenties who has lost her voice and can only communicate through song; and her older sister, also named Kyrie, in extended flashbacks set in 2011.
Making an already convoluted scenario worse, the theatrical release of Kyrie is a whole hour shorter than the three-hour cut that played at festivals earlier this year. While this two-hour version already threatens to outstay its welcome, the film feels like it’s missing huge swathes of crucial backstory.
The songs, which constitute Kyrie’s primary emotional outlet, are also reduced to frustrating snippets in Iwai’s efforts to contain his vision to a commercially viable length.
We are first introduced to our protagonist in the suburbs of Osaka in 2011. Shortly after the devastation of 3/11, a young girl (Yayama Hana) who cannot speak is spotted roaming the countryside, and is dubbed “Peep” by the neighbourhood boys.
They tell their teacher, Ms Fumi (Haru Kuroki), who tracks her down and learns that her name is Luca and she is homeless.
Cut to present-day Tokyo where Luca, now played by Aina and going by the name Kyrie, is living on the streets and busking for change in order to eat.
She bumps into her old school friend Ikko (a woefully miscast Suzu Hirose), who takes her in and assumes the role of her manager. Brandishing an inordinate number of multicoloured wigs and with dubious older male friends, Ikko proves to be something of a liability, but does get Kyrie and her music in front of some appreciative and influential people.
From here, the film jumps back and forth between three different timelines: the doomed romance between the older Kyrie and her boyfriend Natsuhiko (Hokuto Matsumura) in the days before the Tohoku disaster, Ikko and young Kyrie’s high- school days in 2018, as well as Kyrie’s burgeoning career as a certified street performer in 2023.
Iwai also packs his supporting cast with a plethora of familiar faces, but they have little opportunity to make an impact. By the end, Kyrie leaves the viewer feeling discombobulated and wholly dissatisfied by this fragmented and frustrating experience.