A Bride for Rip Van Winkle

How far would you go for human connection or love? Iwai Shunji’s latest masterwork probes at these questions—themes of modern isolation and technological (dis)connection that he has explored throughout his career. Unassuming and a bit aimless, Nanami (a marvelous and subtly complex Haru Kuroki) has no friends and only connects via social networks and online chats. She can’t even get respect from her students, who tease her relentlessly. We first meet her on a blind date with Tetsuya (Go Jibiki), and when things go well in the relationship they decide to get married. With no one to invite to the wedding, and embarrassed by her divorced parents, Nanami turns to the online all-around fixer Amuro (Go Ayano)—half Sganarelle, half Mephistopheles—for help. For a large fee, he fills her wedding with actors and strangers, and Nanami’s fall from grace begins… Mysteries unfold slowly and suspensefully in this film that invites us to lend its broken, moorless characters not just our pity but our love.