Introduction

Naoko Ogigami is a voice in Japanese cinema that resounds louder and louder. Many of her narratives, like Kamome Diner (2006), Glasses (2007), and Close-Knit (2017) have received international acclaim and garnered nominations and awards. Now, two years after delivering Riverside Mukolitta (2021), she crafts another one of her peculiar light-hearted dramas.

Review

Not long after the full extent of the Fukushima disaster is revealed and the various countermeasures citizens within the radius of exposure need to take, Yoriko’s husband Osamu (Ken Mitsuishi) mysteriously disappears, leaving her and his son Takuya (Hayato Isomura) behind.  

Several years later, Yoriko’s life of praying, drinking bottles of Green Life Water and daily tending to her Zen-garden are disturbed by the sudden return of her husband. He does not only come to burn essence for his deceased father, whom Yoriko (Mariko Tsutsui) cared for, but also tell her that he has cancer and wants to spend his last days with her. Yet, what is the true reason for his return?

Ripples is a narrative that explores the gap between the imaginary equilibrium of the ego and the hidden broiling subjective discord and how this gap determines the way subjects interact with each other. In our view, Ogigami’s narrative succeeds to explore this often disregarded gap in an incredibly transparent and confronting way. Behind the drama and the comical flourishes hides a narrative that motivates the spectator to discern his own gap.  

As the gap is the main structuring element of Ripples, it is not surprising that Ogigami touches upon the supports the subject finds to safeguard the consistency of his ego as defence. One of the main support Yoriko utilizes to stabilize her ego are the signifiers and rituals of the cult-like religion. 

It is quite evident, from the beginning, that the cult-like circle that Yoriko joins exploits the destructive soiling of earth by the Fukushima disaster and the contamination of water by the radiation leak of Fukushima in particular. The sudden presence of a discourse of contamination and radiation within the societal field forms, in other words, the feeding ground for new forms of spiritual and financial exploitation – such kind of spiritual discourse gains its strength by wielding the fear that such discourse has instilled in certain subjects. It is thus not surprising that the signifiers that reverberate in the speeches and rituals gravitate around the central dynamic of purity and purification.

Why does certain subject need such a support? Because, as the narrative so beautifully shows, the societal field is full of small conflicts, with small ripples that disturbs the mendacious image of a peaceful equilibrium. Rather than good deeds rippling and influencing other subjects, like the ‘priestess’ of the cult declares, it is the ricocheting of signifiers and acts that disturbs the flat surface of the societal field and, thus, the mental equilibrium of the subject. 

The subject tries everything in its power to maintain the imaginary equilibrium but cannot avoid failing. The very attempt to silence the relational ripples, by telling lies (e.g. I have no alcohol), remaining silent (e.g. the disapproving staring gaze), and avoiding subjective confrontation, does not merely emphasize the frail and mendacious nature of one’s established equilibrium, but reveals it as an attempt to repress the subjective turmoil that lingers within. The ripples, by repeatedly bashing against the subject, violently invite her to enter the relational dynamic as subject.    

While the cult-like discourse seems to motivate Yoriko to make peace with her husband, it soon becomes apparent that the religious instructor does not push her to meet each other at the level of their subjectivity. Instead, by establishing a fake sense of sameness and by suppressing her frail subject by strengthening her ego with hopeful signifiers and expensive support-products, the instructor avoids offering her the key that can help her work-through her subjective turmoil. As a result, she finds herself into a prison of dependence that will keep her consuming.

Yoriko finds a different support for her frail subject in the signifiers she receives from her co-worker. Yet, these signifier are radically different from those she drinks from her revered priestess. She should not make peace, but get back at him for causing her so much suffering. At a deeper level, however, her co-worker’s signifiers have the same effect as the those from her spiritual instructor. By emphasizing the element of imaginary opposition, revenge, and conflict – an eye for an eye, she steers away Yoriko from resolving her inner struggle by exchanging signifiers.

Thanks to her co-worker’s signifiers, a need is born within her to exact little rippling acts of revenge and gain fleeting moments of pleasure by utilizing the signifier to swash against the other and manipulate, defeat, and subject him. Yet, can Yoriko go beyond the protective flight in religion and the pleasure of exacting revengeful acts to meet his subjectivity with her own? Can she stop utilizes the rippling signifier to disturb the other and receive the ripples of subjectivity that escape along with the signifiers she receives?   

The composition of Ripples combines static shots and slow-moving dynamism. While the concatenation of shots is thoughtful and effective, it is not what stands out the most in her composition. The stylistic element that deserves most praise form the spectator is the colour-and lighting design.

While the colour- and lighting design of Ripples seems naturalistic at first, Ogigami’s subtle use of shadows and washed-out colours emphasizes that her artistic choice also has a different aim. By refusing the colours their warmness and brightness, Ogigami creates an atmosphere that, while seemingly peaceful, is marked by a lack. Or, in other words, she stages a subjective equilibrium that is founded on a lack that is repressed, but nevertheless felt.

The dimension of lack is also brought to the fore in the acting-performances. It does not take long to notice that many of the interactions between characters lack emotionality and that our characters speak in a somewhat detached way. Eye-contact is also minimal and emptiness between the enunciated signifiers is ever felt. This creates an imaginary relational web where signifiers are exchanged but not received by a subject (Narra-note 1).  

A visual element that keeps returning – a visual motive that keeps lingering throughout the composition, is the element of ripples. It is by encountering this element and the transformations it undergoes that the spectator can grasp the true meaning of the kind of ripples signifiers and acts create. Ripples are visually shown to be the very element that disturbs the imaginary field of societal harmony and relational peace. 

With Ripples, Ogigami delivers an incredible narrative. With her quirky sense of humor, she delivers one of the most illuminating explorations of the effect the gap between the imaginary equilibrium of the ego and the hidden broiling subjective discord has on relational functioning.

Notes

Narra-note 1: The dominancy of the imaginary within the relationship between Yoriko and her husband is highlighted by the contrast between his response to the countermeasures against the radioactive fallout and his sudden disappearance. In fact, within this temporal gap, one can sense that subjective things are left unsaid between the couple.    

Narra-note 2: The destructive impact of the imaginary in also felt in the confrontation between Yoriko and her Takuya’s girlfriend Tamami (-). What renders Yoriko unable to meet her as subject is the field of prejudices. The whole waterfall of preconceived ideas that arise when realizing that she does not hear that well and is six years older than her son creates a wall that tries to deflect their subjectivity.

While the confronting enunciations of her son and Tamami penetrate Yoriko’s wall of preconceptions to ripple her subjectivity, these verbal attacks are unlikely to force a subjective change in Yoriko’s ego-construction.