[Ryūsuke Hamaguchi Ranked][Japanese Movies Ranked]⚠️This review contains minor spoilers.⚠️For a movie called The Depths, I found that it barely scratched the surface of the human condition. The story involves a renowned Korean photographer (Bae-hwan) who is hired by his best friend (Gilsu) to take photos of his wedding. The bride unfortunately decides to ditch it last minute. A story that involves a murder and male prostitute (Ryu) intersects with it all. The plot got messy at times. It never really came together as much as I wanted it to and it didn’t seem fully realized. I also thought the characters weren’t developed enough for me to be invested in them. The main point I think Ryūsuke Hamaguchi was trying to get across was how people can be so afraid to truly become who they are inside. The bride of the wedding runs off with another woman. You can only imagine the amount of backlash and trouble that caused. The male prostitute’s supervisor (or bodyguard?) goes back to their boss after getting in trouble and running away because “that’s who he is.” He ultimately pays the price for it. In these instances, Hamaguchi shows us that it never comes without sacrifice or consequences. The Korean photographer is implied to be able to see something deeper in people. Their true selves, needs and desires. He sees that Ryu has the potential to leave his scummy life behind and possibly be a model. He sees that perhaps there was a reason why Gilsu’s wife to be left him and that there were more reasons behind his tears than what appears on the surface. Bae-hwan also sees this with himself. He has a wife and baby at home and we can only insinuate that he’s unhappy due to him not picking up his phone. That’s the extent of it and no more depth to that part of him that was explored. The acting and script were decent, but clunky at times due to going back and forth between Japanese and Korean. The Depths has an interesting premise and is rough around the edges overall, but it’s a solid effort from Hamaguchi early on in his career. With another movie of his called Passion, I wasn’t too impressed by the first two thirds of it but I really dug the final act. With The Depths, it was the opposite of that.
