Directors Yukihito Tsutsumi and Ryuhei Kitamura first met at a Hotel bar in Colgone Germany while the two were in town for the CineAsia Film Festival. They each knew of each other’s films and respected the other’s work in the Japanese film industry immensely. Kitamura mentioned he enjoyed Tsutsumi’s film “Chinese Dinner”, an 80 minute film which takes place entirely in a restaurant. Ironically, Tsutsumi was inspired to make that film after watching Kitamura’s “Heat After Dark”. After some more conversation and drinking the two came to the agreement that they should each make a film as a friendly competition. There would be certain rules of course. First: the entire movie must use a single set. Second: you can only use 2.5 actors (the half being support such as non-speaking roles or voices). And third: it must be filmed in only 7 days. A few months later Tsutsumi contacted Kitamura to let him know he was ready to get started on a film involving two young large-breasted roommates fighting in an apartment, and jokingly suggested maybe Kitamura could make a film with two old men fighting in a temple. They came to a compromise and Kitamura instead decided to work on a 1 on 1 samurai film called Aragami. Tsutsumi continued with his plan to film 2LDK (2-Bedroom, Living Room, Dining Room & Kitchen), his half of the competition which would be referred to as The Duel Project.
Nozomi (Eiko Koike) and Lana (Maho Nonami) are two actresses working for the same talent agency. They share an apartment together close to the agency to make it easier for them to check in for new roles and auditions and we’re let in on the main scenario right away—they’re each up for the same role in a big film called “Yakuza Wives”. In addition, through the clever use of thought voice-overs it’s made pretty evident they each find the other a little bit annoying. Nozomi is an over-achieving theater geek with a propensity for being uptight. Lana, on the other hand, relies more on her looks to get by in life and flaunts her extravagant clothes and accessories much to the dismay of Nozomi who can’t seem to stop bitterly taking inventory in her head.
With the prospect of a major film role up for grabs the tension between the two begins to steadily ramp up. It begins with simple annoyed thoughts but eventually it becomes verbal as Nozomi begins to get angry that Lana is using her stuff without permission. Lana in turn gets annoyed that Nozomi is being so petty and that sets the stage for each of them snapping and turning the hostility into something more blatant and physical. The line between passive-aggression and plain old aggression doesn’t only get crossed, it gets completely trampled as the two roommates both go at each other with common household objects in an unspeakable manner culminating with a final stand-off with ice picks.
This is definitely not a film to be taken seriously in any way. Even so, certain aspects of it ring true and that’s where a good percentage of the comedy comes from. Tsutsumi intended this film for a female audience and thus incorporated a lot of the unspoken hostility that can exist between women who remain outwardly cordial while secretly despising each other for various reasons. Instead of stopping there he then projected that hostility out to a more tangible and violent scenario that’s as entertaining as it is unlikely.
The logistical limitations of 2LDK’s filming certainly didn’t lend themselves to a high-quality film so if you take that into consideration the end product is pretty amazing. Due to the time constraints and the relative inexperience of both actresses Tsutsumi decided to employ the Jun-dori style of film-making in which scenes are filmed in proper order from beginning to end, allowing for more realistic performances. Toward the end of the seven day time limit both actresses caught a flu virus and had 102 degree fevers during some of the most physically-demanding scenes of the film. This may have been a blessing in disguise because in some of the scenes where they’ve both totally snapped and are supposed to be out of it they really do seem out of it due to a combination of fever and a tight shooting schedule. The result is an enjoyable 70 minutes of exaggerated female hostility that lives up to its own simple-yet-fascinating premise.
Availability: TLA Releasing currently distributes 2LDK on region 1, NTSC DVD. Check here for full specs.
