Ambiguous Places

Sometimes you wake up and think, "This is not my day." Sometimes you wake up and you can't think because there's a strange insect protruding from your head. Then you know it's really not your day. That's the situation that Konoko is in, having woken up on the beach tangled up in a fishing net. She reaches a nearby town where some unbelievable things are happening. It's a place where a hairdresser makes decisions about pregnancies, gloves are sewn with a potter's wheel and the noodles are so tasty you can buy them in exchange for your own father. During a Q&A session after a screening of the film, cinematographer Mizuki Osada confessed that during the filming of Ambiguous Places, the crew mixed up the order of the scenes they had filmed. Viewers may also feel lost when they try to tackle the puzzle prepared by the director. Layers of pure nonsense pile up like in one of Roy Andersson's dreams. The viewer falls into a web of disturbing events, odd rituals, unintelligible situations, as if the tongue needed to explain them went numb after being stung by a jellyfish.