Many people believe that their ego, as what they present to the other, is truth. Yet, with the advent of social media, it has become increasingly clear that the fragments we present to the Other are not only fictions, but fabricated answers to what we believe the Other desires from us.

This shift towards fictionalisation of ourselves for the Other invites us to question how truth and lie relate to each other within our interaction with others. Teppei Isobe (F is For Future (2019)) formulates an answer by approaching relational dynamics from the perspective of a human rental business.   

Truth or Lies follows Risa Tanaka (Cocoro Asami), a woman who just broke up with her boyfriend and colleague Shoya Sotojima (Sho Mineo), after confronting him with his infidelity. Not long after quitting the furniture shop, Risa is invited by Takasaka (-) to join a gig of attending a scientific talk for money. As Mr. Teramura (Tomoki Kimura), the owner of the rental business, sees potential in her, he asks her to do more difficult roles – a mother, a manager, a girlfriend (Narra-note 1).

Teppei Isobe’s opening is elegantly structured, tracing Risa’s turn to the rental business while introducing the fundamental questions the narrative explores. The introduction unfolds in two steps, around enunciations given at a scientific talk about animals and lies.

The first enunciations Teppei isolates for the spectator are the following: “Animals other than humans lie, too (…) They lie in order to deceive their enemies, to secure their survival”. While the human subject does not need to secure his physical survival, the human lie aims to ensure the ‘survival’ of his ego and maintain the harmony of the relationship. As these signifiers decorate the beginning of the film, the spectator is subtly persuaded to associate this focus of survival with Shoya Sotojima’s deceit of women. What he aims to secure is not merely his subjective truth – the thing he does not want anyone to see, but his subjectivity as such. He does not merely play around with two women, but plays with them to keep them at a distance, to ensure they do not penetrate his ego to see the subject that lies beyond.

The second step turns around the enunciations: “Insect mimicry can also be considered a form of deception,” and “We constantly pretend to be something we are not, so lying through appearance”. These statements emphasize the fundamental function of the human ego and its intimate link with our body-image – i.e. the image we present to the Other of our body. However, Truth or Lies does not only explore the structural deception we subject ourselves to, but the ease by which the ego-as-image can be turned into a commodity for the Other. For money, we lie the lie that swirls around our subject – we fabricate multiple versions of our ego, multiple fictional variations that emanate same subjective truth.   

As the narrative unfolds, the spectator slowly gains a grasp on why certain subjects turn to rental services. Some people utilize such rental service not simply to save their fictional face, but because they need a fiction to pleceive – please and deceive – the Other (e.g. his demands, his ideals, …) and to avoid subjective introspection – i.e. question themselves and work-through their own lingering complexes. Truth or Lies shows that, within contemporary times, Freud’s flight into illness has transformed into a flight into self-serving fiction, a fiction that, just like a mental illness, is determined by one’s subjective truth.

While in most cases, the deception merely aims to grant the Other a pacifying sign, Truth or Lies also underlines that the creation of a fiction, whomever it serves, sorts relational and subjective effects. To put it differently, Teppei Isobe does not simply shows that the signifier has an impact within a fictional frame, but that the presence of fictions – from one’s ego to the roles one must play – is necessary for the encounter, as carried by the exchange of signifiers, to be able to have an effect, for better or worse. 

The composition of Truth Or Lies offers a pleasant mix of static and dynamic shots. Teppei Isobe also makes great use of static long takes, giving his cast time to breathe life into the shifting moods of the speech-interactions and the reverberations caused by the presence of lies within the conversational fabric. It speaks to the talent of the cast, that they succeed in making these shifts and reverberations, as caused by the signifier, so engaging. It would not be an understatement to say that such conversational moments form the highlight of Truth or Lies and constitute the driving force of the spectator’s pleasure (Cine-note 1).

Truth or Lies hits all the right emotional notes – the comical ones, the dramatic one, and the heartwarming notes as well. This has, of course, a lot to do with the performances of the ensemble cast and their on-screen chemistry. Moreover, the emotional resonance of the narrative ultimately serves as a corroboration of the film’s themes, of the fact that fiction is necessary for subjective encounters to be able to have any effect.  

Truth Or Lies is an incredibly satisfying film that does not merely show that subjects need the lie but also that it is, by virtue of fiction, that our signifiers have effects on the other. Teppei Isobe’s success lies in his ability to bring a group of actors and actresses together that bring his thematical explorations in a believable and touching manner alive. Highly recommended.  

Notes:

Narra-note 1: While the Truth Or Lies centres Risa Tanaka, the relation between Teramura and Momo (-), his daughter, takes the centre stage in the second half of the narrative.

Cine-note 1: Teppei Isobe also crafts many pleasing shot-compositions to frame the relational interactions.