Made in Japan (2018) and Winny (2023) Tales of Modern Strife in Japan (Review)

From Sakka Films we have a double bill from Yusaku Matsumoto, a Japanese filmmaker who brings us two very thematically linked efforts based around morality and justice in modern day Japan. Made in Japan is a 2018 short that opens with a disturbing, violent murder that is then widely publicised in the papers. A young mechanic sees a censored photo of one of the killers and instantly recognises him as his former co-worker, and when he tells his layabout friends they encourage him to tell this unremarkable story to the press for an attractive payout. But this leads his group to create stories about this person to swindle the papers out of money, a scheme that’s destined to backfire.

Winny is a 2023 feature film based on the highly prolific legal case of Isamu Kaneko, the creator of Japan’s most popular peer-2-peer file sharing service (think Pirate Bay) who was arrested in 2003 and charged with copyright infringement, the first time in Japan’s history that the creator of an online service was arrested for the actions of its users. It’s a case that has since shaped a great deal of how Japan’s internet is governed.

With these two films we get a sense of Matsumoto as a filmmaker interested in social justice and morality in contemporary Japan. Made in Japan acts more like a traditional parable for its brevity and eerie conclusion, while Winny is a heavily grounded, to-the-book legal drama that takes its time. On a personal level, the story of Winny is very much up my alley, I wrote my university dissertation arguing that internet piracy is an overwhelming benefit to film culture and stories like Isamu Kaneko’s are an integral part as to why the internet is the way it is today. On paper the story appeals to me, however Matsumoto is in no rush to tell it. The film plays itself very straight, gathering details and establishing the unjust stakes of the case to virtually zero fanfare. This is certainly a choice to make the film as unthrilling as possible, this mode of anti-excitement makes it difficult to think of anything similar, but the film makes sporadic departures into the overly sentimental that muddy this approach and leaves us with a film that is both detached in a way that doesn’t engage and also tries to feign emotion from nowhere. The sparring use of music is effective when it kicks in, but stylistically both films are almost invisible. Made in Japan has more moments of flair like the static shot that exposes the central crime to the backdrop of Kyoto’s city lights glistening in the water. Winny was made five years later which at the very least marks an interesting juxtaposition as to why Matsumoto would make the choice to de-stylise his film, but in practice it adds up to a pretty long-winded affair.

Made in Japan is a more successful affair, a film with a better articulated and even-handed analysis of the Japanese youth of today. It tells a story of detachment and vapid loss of empathy that feels unique to the current climate of online over-stimulation. In 30 minutes the film not only covers how this group of young people manipulate the press to exploit this crime but we also follow an influencer who loudly and obnoxiously follows the developments of the crime investigation in person. While the film as a whole does offer insight this raises a different problem to Winny where the story feels almost too nagging and moralistic to the point where it becomes more like a wrist-slapping PSA on how Japan’s youth are just on their damn cell phones too much.

Matsumoto is a director clearly invested in the social issues of our modern world concerning journalism and the internet, and both these films very forwardly depict stories that represent the symptoms of a nationwide issue. But it’s in this generalised frame that both of these films lack specificity and offer limited interrogation of the issues they present. Yet I think a filmmaker who is so driven to look forward into the current climate of his country instead of backwards makes him worthy of your attention.

Rent Winny Here

Rent Made in Japan Here

Jake’s Archive – Made in Japan & Winny