Review of The Sylvian Experiments (2010) by Pete S — 02 Apr 2012

My guess would be that most people won't have too satisfying an experience with this one, however I would not put that down to a lack of skill from the writer\director\cinematographer\actors overall- it's partly to do with cultural divides and partly to do with the fact that the logic behind the story is not well defined even in the directors mind. Rather than provide you with alternative endings in a DVD, as some directors have done in the past, the film's full sequence can be seen in a few different ways. In fairness though, the movie appears to deal with such a complicated central issue, the way the human brain\psychology works (a biological quantum computer) and what unknown powers it might have, that if the director did have a definite answer then he would not be making films. So the director essentially gives himself the same lofty task that Ken Russell gave himself with 'Altered States' in 1981. Perhaps he should not be making films as an auteur though as his writing seems to require a clearer directorial vision in order to interpret the themes in a way that doesn't infuriate his audience.

It's quite strange in many ways that this film was released in the same year as Inception, surpringly a far less confusing film than this, because the two seem directly linked - perhaps the writers have been reading the same fictional material over the years - most probably Arthur C Clark' Space Odyssey series I, II & III, or similar. The appearance of four young people setting off in a van for a ominous journey that will take them into deeper levels of the mind will seem familiar to Nolan's fans. For Takahashi, without the aid of fictional technology, the divide between different states of conciousness lies in the death experience - as in Flatliners starring Keifer Sutherland and Julia Roberts, or more recently in 'Enter The Void' by Gaspar Noe - another film produced and set in Japan, but one that spent considerably more on its spectacular out-of-body visual effects.

Dr Hattori assumes Keifer Sutherland's role as the stubborn and reckless scientist driven by conviction rather than evidence, in this case convictions that appear reminiscent of the Japanese scientists who conducted biological experiments on Chinese prisoners of war during WW2, still a controversial subject in Japan.

In some ways the film recalls Altered States (1980), as it examines the power of the mind as opposed to the power of physical materials. The spiritual force of places and things is of course one of the most recurring themes in Japanese and far-eastern film, however this film combines this with a sort of unorthadox look at theoretical physics and neuroscience e.g. where a ghost story might use haunted rooms, this film shows you people that have become rooms, the walls made of skin, the space governed by a hidden brain. Another break with Japanese convention seems to be that the appearance of a ghost or Doppelgänger (a favourite of Alfred Hitchcock's) is not associated with someone who has died years prior, but rather someone still in the process of dying, unlike J-horror classics like 'The Eye' - the projection of human emotions, fears, memories and intent is linked to pain and trauma felt in the present, not from some past life. In fact, the writer makes a point of repeating the idea that, life resides solely with the living and the dead are no longer associated with a specific personality. It certainly could have explored these ideas far better with a larger budget and a better spent budget. Two aspects which stand out as particularly poor are the musical\sound score (around half of it) and the digital graphical effects (some of which we could probably reproduce on our laptops with a basic FX program). The director has made some strange decisions resulting in really inconsistant quality of visuals. The more traditional effects of Ringu were far more effective and indeed some of the more disturbing moments seem to be lifted from that film and the poise of some Japanese anime e.g. Princess Mononoke. There is the common Japanese theme of the malevolence present in technology, particualrly communications technology, but rather than taking the supernatural approach of One Last Call, there seems to be an attempt to address real social issues such as the negative influence on young minds of online 'rings' or extreme forums.

So there are probably about three main ways that the film can be seen 1)A punctuated nightmare in the mind of the main protagonist Kaori resulting from a traumatic childhood and her sister's disappearance, 2) A twisted psychological and neurological experiment performed on teenagers manipulated into a vulnerable state by a deceptive online forum, resulting in a traumatic series of semi-real hallucinations for them and anyone closely connected to them, 3) One long dying nightmare in the unconcious mind of Miyuki, expanding on her traumatic relationships, her fading love for her sister, suicidal tendencies and split personality disorder. The director gives absolutely no indication which one may be the case at any point (or indeed a combination of 2 or 3 of them), meaning you cannot piece together a coherent series of events for any longer that about 5 to 10 minutes - only at the end of the film can you reflect on what the basic story may have been - an approach comparible to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, although that film seems to give the audience the time and imagery to reflect on the probable meaning during the actual viewing process. In some ways you might say that The Sylvian Experiments is probably extremely 'clever', but it certainly does not make for a consistantly satisfying experience. You could argue that a films like Richard Linklater's animated 'Scanner Darkly' and 'Waking Life' are just as confusing if not more so, yet they seem to be far greater appreciated because the style and techniques used prepare the audience for what type of experience to expect, whereas this film seems to build up false expectations by playing down the surreal or mysterious elements as if you are supposed to instantly know what they mean and move on to the next plot device, rather than forcing you to accept early on that the nature of the film's subject excludes the possibility of any clear path through the story without some serious digging. I can remember feeling similar emotions while watching the mysterious American sci-fi thriller 'Primer', but it did not add to the frustration by referencing big cultural conventions or cliches simultaneously, as if making some point about the nature of cinema or a distracting political argument. So in essence, with some bold adjustments to the script, different visual effects in places and a clearer committment to the sci-fi and modern element of the story, this could have been something very special. The director is no idiot - if he had managed to say everything he wanted to say in one film, he could have been a genius - but he certainly needs a more critical set of colleagues and a more focused idea of the most important message he wants to get across - a stronger fabric to hold the smaller themes together. score - 65%.