Out of Fantasia Film Festival, Eriko Katagiri’s When You Open the Door moves at an agonizingly glacial pace and guns for the feeling, tone, and approach of Tomas Alfredson’s Let the Right One In, but it fails to move or provoke in any significant way. It’s poetically dreary without the weight of real, affecting lyricism in either the script or performances. The film, co-written with Tomoko Shinozuka, begins on one note and never accelerates enough to keep the viewer invested. Its heartbeat barely registers, and while the visual aesthetic is sweetly strange, the story doesn’t justify its existence.
When we meet Miki (Serena Motola), an architectural firm employee, she awakens from a restless slumber. She wanders aimlessly through her life, unable to find joy or purpose in even her work. She doesn’t appear to have any life left inside her, displayed through Motola’s lifeless performance. Perhaps that’s the point, but it neither gives the audience a character on which to latch nor a reason to keep watching. Compared to her joyously infectious co-workers, Miki has no reason for existing. But she will soon enough after a mindless stroll through the back alleys of a city street.
She’s bitten by a werewolf, which appears in flashes, almost ghost-like and non-existent. It’s unclear whether it’s simply her heart’s biggest desire or a very real danger to her life. The two fang marks on her neck quickly heal themselves. When she reveals to her co-workers that she’s been bitten, they laugh it off, as one does. With no physical proof, how could they possibly be expected to believe her? Miki is immediately cast into severe isolation and further detachment from other human beings. Katagiri shoves the audience through a surrealist woodchipper. Images dreamily flutter by the eyelids, causing complete sleep paralysis.
The film’s sluggishness does the idea a clear disservice. There’s a lack of earnest emotion and a propulsion to get to the next story beat. It’s a rather laborious chore to sit through and feel much of anything. Midway through the film, When You Open the Door completely flatlines and never recovers, appearing more as a concept rather than a fully fleshed-out feature. Motola does what she’s been hired to do, but it’s to her detriment.
Eriko Katagiri’s When You Open the Door is remarkably dull, uninspired, and reductive. Even as you peel back the exterior, there’s nothing into which to dig, no profound commentary about the pressures of the modern rat-race, lost dreams, or overwhelming loneliness of the outsider. It arrives DOA, which is quite unfortunate for the talent in front of and behind the camera.
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