When festival season comes around, I’m always excited because I’m likely going to see films that I wouldn’t otherwise get a chance to. Whether I love them or hate them, I always come away with new knowledge and appreciation for the industry. Teki Cometh is one of those films, though I didn’t love it, I ultimately appreciated the story it was telling.
Teki Cometh follows retired professor Watanabe (Kyôzô Nagatsuka), a man coming to the end of his life. He knows this and lives a life he is comfortable with, even if the lifestyle he is used to will eventually run dry. He entertains ex-students, writes articles, and is content with the final chapter of his life. Slowly, though, his life starts to unravel in surreal ways, and he begins to lament some of the choices of his past.
Teki Cometh is a trippy film broken up across the four seasons. Nagatsuka sells a compelling performance as a man who begins to fear his mortality. With meetings with ex-students, he reminisces on the days when he was shaping minds.
Teki Cometh – It means the enemy is coming
The overarching theme of mortality is impressive within Teki Cometh. The idea that Watanabi is living on borrowed time was at first, to me, something quite romantic. The film being in black and white helped this romanticism that I had within my mind, until the film begins to touch on what it means to look back on a life. With the black and white cinematography, there are no possibilities for rose-tinted glasses, and as the film progresses towards its climax, this becomes all the more prevalent.
There is a fear within Watanabe that I imagine many feel, a fear of the unknown; the film puts forth that idea as a force that comes from the North, encroaching on his everyday life. It becomes unnerving and disturbing, and there are scenes in the film that make it a horror, because ultimately, that is what death and regret can become for some people.
The problem I have with Teki Cometh is how it portrays some of the surreal elements. They are designed in a similar fashion. It made me chuckle at one point when Watanabe seems to fall out of one dream into another.
What brought the film back for me, though, was the ending. When the film enter its final season, there is a wonderful culmination of elements that left me impressed. It’s rare that a film does that, that in the closing minutes brings it all around. If they hadn’t achieved that so convincingly, I’m fairly certain I wouldn’t have liked this film as much.
Teki Cometh is just one of many films being shown at this year’s Japanese Film Festival. Follow the link to book your tickets and enjoy.
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