About an hour into Yujiro Harumoto’s gnarly and suspenseful morality tale “A Balance,” Yuko (Kumi Takiuchi), a documentary filmmaker, argues with an abortion doctor (Ryo Ikeda) that “this what is moral is not always what is best”. It’s a platitude already put to the test for Yuko, whose life has suddenly become very complicated. But this test has only just begun.
“It’s all upside down,” replies the doctor. He doesn’t know half of it.
For the next 90 minutes of this slowly building ethical puzzle, Harumoto relentlessly changes the terms whenever Yuko thinks she’s figured out “what’s best.” Through the film’s unsettling denouement, viewers are likely to share in its disorientation, in generally good (see: thought-provoking, nuanced) ways, even if the plot, with its many conveniences, sometimes strains credulity.
When we meet Yuko, she’s scrambling to finish a documentary about allegations of sexual impropriety at a Tokyo school. As his investigation grows, the ethics becomes more vexing, especially because of corporate pressure and misogyny.
Still, she’s a player. His willingness to stretch certain standards in the service of “The Truth” portends trouble to come. After a side event involving her teacher father (Ken Mitsuishi) brings Yuko’s world crashing down, she seeks protection in the tools that give her critical distance as a filmmaker – her camera, her insistent questions. It was a nice thought, anyway.
Takiuchi’s Yuko, by turns maternal and mercenary, is a bewitching enigma: what motivates her? Why does she still live with her father? Fortunately, we get little back story; it is enough that she is an ambitious woman, stifled by an unforgiving double standard around sex and autonomy. As the stakes rise, moral clarity proves to be a luxury not everyone can afford.
A balance
Unclassified. In Japanese, with subtitles. Duration: 2h33. Watch on Film Movement+.