Noé Benifla in “Welcome to Japan.”
“Welcome to Japan,” which will be offered online by The New Jersey International Film Festival at Rutgers University in New Brunswick on Oct. 5, is a low-budget film. But it reminds me, in a way, of epic literature: tales such as Homer’s “Odyssey,” Virgil’s “Aeneid” and Dante’s “Inferno,” in which the hero has to undergo a long journey and encounters all kinds of strange people and beings, and overcomes a series of challenges, on the way. Noé Benifla — a former Rutger student who wrote and directed the 100-minute film, and also stars as its main character, Elvis — may be working in a minimal style, but he has a knack for evoking deep layers of meaning. (His soundtrack is also filled with great surprises, with gems by sources as different as Charles Mingus and Neil Young and The Moldy Peaches underpinning various scenes perfectly.)
“Welcome to Japan” has got nothing to do with that country. The phrase come from a random, unexplained comment that someone mysteriously makes to Elvis, in a nightclub bathroom. It works well as the title because Elvis feels, throughout the movie, like he is lost in a strange land.
This 20something man is from Burgundy, France, and has come to Paris to catch a flight to New York, where he is scheduled to begin a job, soon, as an archivist at a heritage center. (The film is in French). He leaves his ID card in his rental car, though, so he is not able to board his plane.
Outside the airport, he is forced to get into a car by a tough guy with a gun. But as they are driving, the tough guy realizes he has picked up the wrong person, and lets Elvis go. And so Elvis finds himself somewhere in Paris, at night, with very little money.
His goal, of course, is to get back to the airport. But that is easier said than done. In a series of bizarre scenes, he encounters all kinds of oddballs and lost souls including a depressed drag queen named Shakesqueer; a gambling addict and his frustrated wife; a deep thinker resigned to his life as a menial worker (“My thing was philosophy … I liked it but I had no talent”); and a cultish tribe devoted to living as 1960s hippies (the film is set more or less in the present). Many of the characters are menacing, or mentally ill, or both.
Elvis, who is a bit of a lost soul himself (“I’m just a loser; I can’t even catch my fucking plane on time,” he says at one point), endures it all with mild-mannered stoicism. But he finally has an epiphany that makes for an explosive climactic scene, as his inner truths, long bottled up, come gushing out of him. This is followed by a poetic ending, back at the airport.
He has survived and has found his way back home, in a sense — just like Odysseus — and has undoubtedly been changed by his experiences. And as a viewer, I felt like I had been on a real journey, as well.
The New Jersey International Film Festival will offer “Welcome to Japan” online from midnight Oct. 4 to midnight Oct. 5. Visit njfilmfest.com.
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