Japan haunted by Catherine Deneuve

This is undoubtedly the first time that we have seen Catherine Deneuve spend from life to death under the eye of the camera. At 81, Queen Catherine has fun surprising her world in Yokai, the world of mindsof the Singaporean director Eric Khoo (Singapore Hotel, Be With Me, My Magic). It almost seems that the script was built around the iconic figure of the French actress with some 150 films. The plot takes deneuve above all to Tokyo. As if to better isolate it far from its bases. The actress has embodied a very popular singer in Japan since the 1960s, Claire Emery, who undertook a final farewell tour in Tokyo.

At the same time, we follow his oldest and biggest admirer, Yuzo (Masaaki Sakai), who religiously listens to his records on his vinyl plate. Suddenly died, the old man turns into a Yokai, a sort of ghostly creature from Japanese folklore that wanders in limbo, feeling that his passage on earth is not over. After her melancholy tokyo performance, followed by a depressing autograph session during which she signed a CD to the son of Yuzo, Claire Emery escapes and will go dripping the sake in a small malfamous bar. It is there that she collapses on the counter … to better reappear in a ghost. We will understand that his mission is not completed either. The two stray minds are then found for a last mission of preventing Yuzo’s son from falling deep into depression after losing a woman with whom he was madly in love.

The French actress seems to have fun playing a lost ghost, wandering with casualness, a touch of humor and irony, between metaphysical questions and spiritual initiatory journey

The film never loses sight of Catherine Deneuve, our national living legend transformed into a floating spectrum which explores the blurred borders between the world of the living and that of the spirits. Almost all the plans, the French actress seems to have fun playing a lost ghost, wandering with casualness, a touch of humor and irony, between metaphysical questions and spiritual initiatory journey.

Turned entirely in Japan, in the immensity of cities, in large traditional cemeteries, on country roads or facing the raging sea in the middle of the rocks, Yokai, the world of minds A documentary road movie is almost akin to Catherine Deneuve. Death serves as the main theme for the film, but it only touches the surface. The intrigue, which stages ethereal figures guiding the living towards the acceptance of mourning or sorrow, is nothing very new.

It is only to remember the fascinating Sixth sense by M. Night Shyamalan, released in 1999, to realize that Yokai, the world of minds It is only a Japanese variation at the small foot, disguised in contemplative work. There remains the magnetic presence and not at all ghostly of Catherine Deneuve that we like to see investing in this unexpected role. And we will also save the three beautiful aerial, melancholy and nostalgic songs, composed by Jeanne Cherhal (so far from God is a smoker of Havana), which go well to the complexion of the actress and could be enough for themselves, far from this feature film a little too pompous and solemn.

The note of Figaro : 2/4