The Volatile Woman – Kihatsusei no onna (2004)

Directed by: Kumakiri Kazuyoshi | 80 minutes | drama | Actors: Ishii Mitsuko, Sawada Shunsuke, Hoshiko Mai, Omori Hiroshi

Etsuko is a widow. A middle-aged woman on her own. The villagers only visit her to refuel, but otherwise find her a rather strange person because she now and then seems to chase invisible butterflies with a net.
Maybe she’s looking for butterflies in the stomach again, and she seems to find them again at a rather unexpected moment. A young man, almost a boy, at first seems to just want to refuel, but eventually threatens the woman with a knife. He then greases him, but when he can’t get to his stranded (and stolen) scooter without being seen by others, he returns to the woman. Threatened by him, she offers him food and shelter.

The next morning, however, the roles are reversed. Etsuko has wrested the knife, and at one point even stabs the man. It is immediately clear that the injury is not too bad, but the young man is a typical case who apparently suffers from attention deficit and is extensively cared for by the woman who stabbed him.

This creates a kind of bond between the two: a bond that starts out rather distant and awkward, but they slowly but surely grow towards each other. Still, the unfamiliarity and volatility (‘volatility’) continue to play an important role in the relationship between the two. They learn to appreciate and even love each other, but at any moment the fragile love seems to turn into hate.

‘The Volatile Woman’ doesn’t really tell much more. The two rather curious people try to live together as normal as possible. An impossibility that is portrayed lovingly, romantically and sometimes funny.

You don’t get to know much more about these people. She is widowed and lonely; he is a petty thief, cute clumsy and loves to pull silly faces. Furthermore, every now and then a girl appears that looks more like a kind of toy doll made human, including a Barbie car.
The film does not last long, but long enough to take plenty of time for the ups and downs of this strange relationship. That benefits the subtlety, although you might also just call the film a bit boring. It is a pity that the colors in the film are rather faded. Perhaps it was done on purpose, after all, the woman is also a rather dull type, but the result is that partly because of this the whole story does not really leave you warm or cold.

‘The Volatile Woman’ is made in a series of six low-budget films, made by six different directors. The theme of the series was ‘love and eros’. This theme refers to the famous (or infamous) pornographic ‘pink pictures’ in Japan. The title ‘The Volatile Woman’ again refers to the films of Kumashiro Tatsumi, one of Japan’s most famous directors of erotic films. Kumashiro also always used the word ‘Onna’ (‘woman’) in his titles.

With those references, ‘The Volatile Woman’ is not an erotic film. The reference to eroticism is only very subtle: the tension in the relationship between the two that sometimes ends in (very discreetly portrayed) sex, and perhaps those faded colors also refer to the erotic genre. After all, they sometimes smear Vaseline on the cameras… Anyway, ‘The Volatile Woman’ is a carefully thought-out and made film, but nevertheless remains a bit boring and meaningless.