Focus

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Movie: Focus / ［Focus］
Director: Satoshi Isaka
Writer: Kazuo Shin
Producer:
Cinematographer: Tetsuo Sano
Release Date: October 12, 1996
Runtime: 73 min
Language: Japanese
Country: Japan

Plot

Through the lens we follow the exploits of a three-person news crew (a reporter, a cameraman and their young woman assistant) on a human interest assignment. From the word go, it's clear to the viewer that their subject is a loser; a timid young man with only one passion in life - listening in on radio and telephone conversations. It is this image the news crew hope to exploit...

When they accidentally overhear a phone conversation between two criminals about a hidden gun, the reporter sees the potential story and follows the lead. Their young subject, clearly uneasy with the whole situation, is made to stoop even lower by becoming a mere tool for the reporter's ambitions to deliver a sensational news story. Oddly enough this humanizes the character of the young man, making him tragic instead of pathetic and shattering the image of the geeky loser that was created from the start.

With the reporter taking the limelight, his disdain for his subject - now, to him, an object - and his position of power over his crew, the group starts a downward trajectory from voyeurism (ironically stooping to the level of their own maligned subject) and sensationalism through irresponsibility and stupidity to violence and death. -- Midnight Eye