This was a film that was as interesting as its title. It was not a romance that makes you feel like crying at the end, nor was it a cute love story that makes you smile the whole time. Watching the film was more like sneaking the other couple’s life and their relationship. Tsuneo and Joze seemed like people who overcame the desire to own something or someone and reached some sort of enlightenment. The flat breakup where Joze gives Tsuneo a porn magazine as a breakup-gift and Tsuneo holds on to it as he leaves created a very strange atmosphere. It was such an honest description of our reality that could be happening in someone else’s life at the moment. No exaggerations and just plain reality. Furthermore, there was a new girlfriend waiting for Tsuneo. Many other ordinary films would have ended as something like, “So Tsuneo and Joze overcame the difficulty of physical disability of Joze and showed a true love to the world and lived happily ever after.” But this film seemed to tell its audience that the reality is not so pink-painted and even though a young couple love each other so much, so passionately, they could eventually break down, faced with the harsh world.
What is in the stroller was not money or something valueable, unlike what the gamblers thought. It is a grown-up lady who swings a knife in front of him. Taken aback, Tsuneo does not know what to do and right at that moment, an old lady runs down the hill, calling “Kumiko, Kumiko.”
Tsuneo goes to a ghetto where Joze and her grandmother live. He gets a meal from them. Joze’s small house is packed with the books that her grandmother brought in. Though Joze always stays inside her house like an animal stays inside a cave, she has been seeing the outside world through books. Kumiko – Joze’s real name – calls her by the name, Joze, which is the name from a French novel. What really surprises Tsuneo is Joze’s delicious food, and little by little, he gets attracted to Joze who seems cynical but warm-hearted.
Tsuneo goes to a ghetto where Joze and her grandmother live. He gets a meal from them. Joze’s small house is packed with the books that her grandmother brought in. Though Joze always stays inside her house like an animal stays inside a cave, she has been seeing the outside world through books. Kumiko – Joze’s real name – calls her by the name, Joze, which is the name from a French novel. What really surprises Tsuneo is Joze’s delicious food, and little by little, he gets attracted to Joze who seems cynical but warm-hearted.
Joze does see fish for real, but the sad part is that it happens on her last trip with Tsuneo. They were actually on their way to meet Tsuneo’s parents, but Tsuneo changes the route and goes to the sea to show Joze the real fish and ocean. The stroller is broken now so Tsuneo carries Joze on his back and walks along the beach. Then, they go to an aquarium to see fish but only to find out that it is closed because it is holiday. Joze is upset and acts like a child. Tsuneo begins to get frustrated (maybe their breakup has started at this moment). Tsuneo says that now that the stroller is broken, they need to get an electric wheelchair. It seems like Tsuneo is finally realizing the reality. He says he cannot carry Joze on his back forever like this.
Joze sees a big sign with fish figures on it, so they go to the motel and Joze sees the “illuminations” of fake fish.
After the trip, Joze and Tsuneo have a rather flat breakup. There is nothing romantic or dramatic about it. Tsuneo walks a little bit wit h his new girlfriend and starts crying like a child in the middle of the road.
Joze identified herself with a figure in a novel. She could gain the courage to face tiger and sail through the ocean (ocean would be the harsh world in front of us?) by meeting Tsuneo. I think this is why the title is “Josee, the Tiger and the Fish.”
Asian50films 