Diner is a visually stunning theatre like production, but extremely flawed in the narrative department.

 

I previously watched and thoroughly enjoyed Ningen Shikkaku, the 2019 movie adaptation of the famous book by Dazai Osamu. As an avid appreciator of the sheer picturesque beauty of that movie, I wanted to check out some more of director, Mika Ninagawa's work. Coincidentally, I discovered that she was behind another 2019 movie that I was intrigued by, that movie being Diner, based on the novel by Yumeaki Hirayama. 

The movie follows Kanako Oba, a young lady who has found no purpose in her lonely, miserable life. The beginning is very bleak, as Mika Ninagawa does an excellent job at using dark, dull colours and lighting to amplify the protagonist's misery and helps me at least, relate to Kanako. When a colourful parade of people suddenly disturbs the bleakness, one of them hands Kanako a leaflet with information on Guanajuato, Mexico. The contrast between the parade of people and the bleakness of her daily life indicates that Kanako wants to find a purpose, a meaning to life, perhaps a place to belong to and it's an excellent use of colour. Unfortunately, a trip to Guanajuato would cost 300000 yen and thus, our protagonist is forced to search for some better paying part time jobs. 

It's during the job search that Kanako comes into contact with the rather eccentric duo of 'Cherry Honey Pie' Cowboy and his girlfriend DD. Kanako's job is simple enough, all she has to do is drive their car. Naturally, like in many movies of this nature, things swiftly go wrong when all three are caught and DD is seemingly killed. Kanako manages to survive the ordeal after stating that she can cook, a statement which sees her taken to the titular Diner. Once there, Bombero, the chef and owner of the establishment coerces her into being his waitress.

I was actually quite relieved when Cowboy and DD disappeared from the movie as they weren't the best characters. The way they predominantly used English made them come across like such cringey Westaboos and I was thankful that their screen time turned out to be very short.

                            

The dynamic between Bombero and Kanako is fascinating. It starts out being very much master and servant with Bombero ordering Kanako around whilst threatening to end her life if she disobeys. Our protagonist on the other hand is forced to obey for the most part, out of fear of being murdered by either Bombero or any of the killer customers. Now, where it gets really interesting is when we learn that Bombero relies on the obedience of waitresses carrying out his orders in order to maintain the diner. He also saves her multiple times from various killers despite threatening to kill her himself.

There's a shift in this dynamic when Kanako steals a very valuable bottle of vodka. Hiding it out of Bombero's sight, she uses it as leverage when negotiating with the killer chef. This one act of defiance shows that she has some smarts and is not a complete pushover. As one would imagine, Bombero is not pleased with her, but knows that killing her would accomplish nothing and he needs her alive in order to learn where she hid it.  

We're introduced to a killer known as Skin whilst Bombero and Kanako are co-operating. One of the best characters in the movie, Skin is fascinating to watch. During conversations between him and Kanako, we learn that the two share something similar in regard to their parental situations. Kanako was abandoned by her mother whilst Skin hides a dark history of abuse. The composition of the scenes in Skin's back room is quite simply superb. The use of dark blues and oleanders shading the room in a way that only focuses on half of Skin, the scars in particular whilst Kanako is fully lit is extremely clever. Kanako is open and accepted that her mother abandoned her whilst, Skin hides his past abusive relationship with his mother by fixating on eating the perfect souffle. The meaning of Skin's narrative is beautiful as it's essentially an ugly truth. One does not always want the fulfilment of their desire. It's heart-breaking to watch play out, but it's superbly executed.

Sadly, the same cannot be said for the rest of the movie's narrative. The pacing of the final third of the movie feels uneven and at times the plot progresses unnaturally swiftly. It's as if the gangster plot line was rushed through due to extremely tight deadlines or something. If a little more time was taken to establish the characters of the gangsters, it would have improved upon the story. Instead, it feels like the movie skips a ton of the novel just to deliver a final showdown, which is epic despite it having several issues, but lacks in key areas. Having said that, the ending itself I enjoyed and once again the use of colour is exquisite. In stark contrast to the bleak beginning the end of the movie makes use of bright colours such as orange, light red and brown. 

In terms of performances, for the most part everyone was solid. Tatsuya Fujiwara was magnificent as always as Bombero. He could carry the majority of the movie on his own and is able to convey a wide variety of emotions with expressions alone for the most part. He also excels in the action scenes when needed. I feel like he's a little underappreciated for what he is able to do. 

Another standout performance was that of Masataka Kubota. Fun little fact for those who don't know, both Fujiwara and Kubota both portrayed Light Yagami in live action adaptations of Death Note. In terms of Diner, Kubota manages to make Skin a sympathetic character despite supposedly being a killer of some renown. His emotionally charged scenes with Kanako are some of the best of the movie. The man seems to have a happen of portraying sympathetic characters and I enjoyed his work as Smoky in the High and Low series as well. 

Hongo Kanata did a great job as Kid. I really wanted that little scumbag to die, and he creeped me out with his backstory of why he has a childlike appearance.

Tina Tamashiro did a splendid job as Kanako Oba. She was another pitiable, sympathetic and yet somewhat relatable character. I do feel however that she was somewhat overshadowed by both Bombero and Skin which is not her fault. 

Miki Maya was brilliant in her portrayal of a badass gangster and so was Okuda Eiji as Coffie. Shun Oguri was pretty solid in what amounted to mere minutes of screen time which I was really disappointed by. Anna Tsuchiya was too over the top for my personal taste.

The biggest achievement and most impressive thing about Diner are the extremely energetic and highly dynamic composition. Mika Ninagawa certainly knows who to paint a pretty picture with her vivid use of colours and cinematography to bolster scenes and not just for visual pleasure. I already mentioned the contrast of the beginning and end of the movie which expertly portrays Kanako's emotional state. It's easy to see that Ninagawa is a photographer as she epitomises the phrase 'every frame a picture'.  

Overall, I think that I would recommend Diner for the stunning visuals and the theatre-like narrative despite its many flaws. I'd also recommend it for those action fans that don't mind things getting incredibly ridiculous. Seriously, the shoot-outs get way over the top with bullets flying everywhere.