Damashie no Kiba (2021)

One of my most anticipated films of the year; most of it thanks to how packed the cast is, gives me the motivation to keep these eyes towards the screen and how everything in the story has come to unfold from beginning all the way through the end.

Kiba: The Fangs of Fiction surprisingly adds a lot of tense and entertainment to a story that could have been executed as a low-key, slow-paced arthouse flick. The cast is amazing, though I regret a few of these big names end up not getting used properly; or at least their characters are.

Speaking of the story, I admit that this film and Blue, among others, have those not everyone could enjoy nor have it spoken towards. With the case of this film, it might be too confusing for some to understand; as even though as much as I was drawn by this, there are things that are just a little too much to be going on at the same time.

But again, yes I do have fun. Glad I was able to catch this while I can.

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Since the synopsis is rather non-descript, let me start by giving some more information:
After the owner of a Japanese publishing house has died, a power struggle ensues. Hayami is appointed as the managing editor of the magazine Trinity by one side -- and editor Takano is also caught up in this, even though she just wants to publish well-written and interesting serialized novels. Both will try to save Trinity in their own ways.

The writing is tight -- every dialogue has meaning, so this is not a casual watch. It took me a while to get who is who and who wants what, which is important because this is very much character-driven, I had to rewind some scenes in the first half hour.
The characters' motivations and ambitions are only revealed by what they say, or don't say; sometimes by their actions -- and a lot of it means you have to read between the lines. The movie's title -- 騙し絵の牙 -- Fang of Deception -- or, the official English title Fangs of Fiction -- hints that at least of these characters may be hiding secret motivations.
There are several plot twists in the end, one of which I did not anticipate at all, but, in hindsight, made a lot of sense.

Also, I want to point out that the office sets, like in many other Japanese productions, are excellent! For example, I love how cramped and busy the editors'room of Trinity is, the mountains of paperwork of every available surface. The space of the much revered Kunpu Reviews, in contrast, looks much more organized and still as realistically used.

Fangs of Fiction is both really funny and shows us the contemporary struggles (of the publishing industry) at the same time. Both the external struggle as a traditional company against the new online world, and the more internal struggle about traditional values and old styles of story-telling versus modern innovation and showing more diversity in stories (I loved the cameos of the disabled and the old model and of Ladybeard.)
It also subtly touches on issues of how women are treated in fiction: The main female editor is constantly trying to point out how outdated the depictions of female protagonists in the fictional novels are -- and is instantly shut down by her male companion. I am glad to see that the female protagonist in this movie is at least as important as the male main character -- and how she found her own successful way of dealing with the issues of the publishing world in these modern times.

Recommended! Maybe you'll find more subtle deceptions when you watch the movie, I'm sure I did not catch them all.

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