[.ca] 2LDK

An Inventive Duel Between Societal Opposites:
2ldk (2-bedroom, living room, dining room, kitchen), directed by Yukihiko Tsutsumi, is one-half of the Duel films project, the other being "Versus" director Ryuhei Kitamura's "Aragami." Clocking in at around 70 minutes, the film is about a single, life-altering night in the lives of two female roommates. Both arrive at their appartment fresh from an audition for the lead role in the big-budget film "Yakuza Wives;" the choice has been narrowed down to them two. The girls have a small dinner, some meaningless chit-chat, and go straight to bed to wait for the final decision the following morning. Or, at least, try. You see, one is a good-natured young woman, coming from a rural setting, with a strong admiration for theatre. She works hard but is rather unlucky in love and all those other social functions. The other is a sultry vixen who's more body than talent and knows it. Carrying an elitist air and a facade of sophistication, she strives for the top by the only means she knows: manipulation. Two polar-opposites existing far too close. With the major role on the line and the tension of a love triangle going on all the while, this night, these two people will snap. Pent-up hatred will become tangible. Minor quarrels will escalate into all-out battles. And nothing is off-limits. From beauty contest trophies to chainsaws to industrial-strength stain remover, these two will stop at nothing to get the role, the guy, and ultimately, justify their own existence to themselves. The single-set piece that is 2ldk is, at heart, fairly simple. The plot and the characters (initially) are all really basic. The real hook of the film is the extremes to which it actually goes. What in reality may only lead to a mild slapfest here balloons into a duel to the death. The fight scenes, thankfully, do not utilize any bullettime effects or heavy CG; there's just good old-fashioned fighting, raw, suiting the movie's faux-realistic tone well. More impressive and interesting, however, is the transformation the two female leads undergo. The circumstances bring them to terms with their own ghosts of the past and the masks they use to conceal the pain and torment explode into the bloody conflict that unfold before the viewer's eyes. By taking this loud, gaudy approach to the violence, Tsutsumi is able to better convey to the audience the gravity of the anguish the two have truly endured. Topped off with an almost painfully ironic ending, 2ldk is a very peculiar masterpiece. Bleeding style, concise and to the point, it is a film that can be seen as a character(s) study; a big, bloody fight; or a societal critique. But, regardless of what you take it to be, 2ldk remains, quite simply, a film to be seen.