Rinko Kikuchi received her only Oscar nomination to date for her performance as Chieko Wataya in Babel.
In my review of Barraza's performance, I mentioned how the highly dramatic nature of most of Babel's storyline made more difficult for the actors to really give depth and three-dimensionality to their characters. This is actually not true for Rinko Kikuchi's storyline: her storyline deals with tragic matters but it's rather quiet for the most part and gives the actress quite a lot of space to build the character of Chieko. There is another problem that Kikuchi has to face though: while the remaining three storylines are closely bound together, the connection between Chieko's story and the main shooting is rather slight (spoiler Chieko's father was the one who gave the rifle to the family of the two kids who ended up shooting the bus spoiler off) and it could have easily felt forced. Thankfully, Rinko Kikuchi prevents her storyline from becoming a filler or an afterthought - she actually makes it the best of the entire movie.
Chieko is a deaf teenager traumatized by the recent suicide of her mother. As a result, she exhibits a rebellious, sometimes promiscuous behavior and treats her father in a cold manner. Rinko Kikuchi does a fantastic job in realizing Chieko's complicated relationship with her father: the chemistry between her and Koji Yakusho subtly conveys the love that is still clearly there, but she excellently shows how Chieko always rejects his attempts to communicate with her and perfectly establishes a certain distance between the two. What I particularly love about Kikuchi's performance though are the nuances she puts in the scenes when Chieko is with her friends: Kikuchi is amazing in being apparently relaxed and laidback but at the same time there is a certain distance (even between Chieko and her best friend) that still makes her a bit of an outsider. She subtly suggests a costant, underlying unease in Chieko which is particularly apparent in the scene in which she fails to socialize with a young boy she finds attractive and then exposes herself to him under a table, or the one in which she sexually teases her dentist: Kikuchi is excellent in those moments as she clearly portrays Chieko's desperation and longing for human contact and movingly portrays Chieko's confused, fragile emotional state.
One of my favorite scenes of Kikuchi's whole performance is the one in which Chieko and her friends take ecstasy pills and go to a rave: those scenes (which are absolutely perfect direction, editing and score wise) are beautifully acted by Kikuchi - she is great in portraying Chieko as she seems to have a good time but at the same time she never stops portraying her lonely, detatched condition and she is absolutely heartbreaking in the moment in which everyone is dancing around her and she's just standing there, incapable of hearing the music. It's an unforgettable image that lasted in my mind for long after the movie was over.
The third act of her performance is, quite simply, a magnificent closure to her performance and Kikuchi is at her very best. She is fantastic in suggesting that there is something off in her scene with the detective (that came earlier to ask her a few question and that she invited to come at her house) and builds up perfectly to the moment in which she finally approaches him fully naked, attempting to seduce him: it's a devastating moment as through Kikuchi's eyes you can see Chieko begging him to make her feel loved and truly connected to someone and her breakdown as he delicately rejects her is not only outstandingly acted by her but also very well-earned. It's a haunting scene that works perfectly not only thanks to Kikuchi's performance but also thanks to her surprisingly touching and poignant chemistry with Satoshi Nikaido (who plays the gentle, warm detective). Her final, tender embrace with her father is also extremely moving in its quietness and also surprisingly heartwarming, and the two actors wonderfully suggest that their relationship might get better with time.
In the end, Rinko Kikuchi delivers a groundbreaking performance, giving meaning and importance to a potentially useless storyline. She perfectly portrays Chieko's lonely, heartbroken emotional state building up wonderfully to the moment in which she finally outbursts. It's a delicate, moving performance that doesn't need words to be haunting and unforgettable.
5/5
0 Yorumlar