Amaterasu

Kate Moore’s Amaterasu is an imaginative retelling of the Japanese myth of a sun goddess. It is an admirable lower-budget effort from the filmmakers – restrained by its budgetary constrictions but still managing to hit some visually-interesting highs with solid costume design and bookend shadow-play sequences.

The film is a short retelling of the Amaterasu myth. It follows the fallout of the titular sun goddess (Wingsze Chung) and siblings Tsukuyomi (Ankit Chawla) and Susanoo (Ashutoshkumar Jha). Sure to relay powerful messages about inner light and the importance of balance, the grace of the goddess eventually overcomes a coming darkness.

Amaterasu is a scrappy short film with a lot of rough edges, but there’s areas were the production values it demonstrates are genuinely impressive. The opening and closing shadow sequences, whilst a rather simple technique, stand out as unique and aligned to the film’s themes of light and darkness. Wingsze Chung’s silky and fluid movements bring an ethereal quality to her character, an otherworldliness that carries over when the film switches to a more traditional drama. The costume design and makeup efforts are another triumph, helping the film transport the viewer back to ancient Japan.

The lower budget and grassroots production do end up hurting the film elsewhere. Performances from the cast are quite wooden and one senses little chemistry between them – perhaps this was a result of an attempt to portray these mythical, god figures as mysterious beings but ends in stilted interactions and general awkwardness. Those unfamiliar with the myth beforehand may also struggle to gain follow the story and meaning behind some of the characters.

A short runtime (the film is only 6 minutes long) is a similar throttle that prevents much depth behind the characters from being established. Myths and fables tend to be more focused on meaning, themes and allegories – and so the story of Amaterasu and the intended message of the timeless Japanese myth is able to be realised within the film. However, most viewers will expect meatier characters even with this in mind, particularly with regards to the motivations for the divide between ‘light’ and ‘dark’.

These issues are more than hiccups and do derail the efforts of the filmmakers, though it should be said that the overall intention of the film and the message it wants to convey still come through quite strongly. Bringing to life Japanese mythology is no easy feat and is an underexplored area for many western audiences, so viewers will find something original and engaging in the setting and story. Much like its starring subject, the light in this film does find its way through.