Paleo Retiree writes:

A truly oddball 2007 Japanese “pink” movie from director Shinji Imaoka, who also made “Underwater Love,” another memorably peculiar entertainment. It’s a slow-moving, low-budget and quickly-shot, ultra-lowkey kitchen-sink-type drama (with some touches of whimsy) about a pair of young women trying to get started in life and not making a very good show of it.

They barely seem to have a clue, in fact. One wants to be a manga creator but for the moment is working as a freelance hooker. The other seems to have nothing on her mind whatsoever, and in fact may be a little slow. She’s got a boyfriend who’s forever cheating on her; she loves reading manga; and she falls into prostitution too.

Some nudity and sex … but also lots of one-shot, underlit scenes; aimlessness; deliberately static camerawork; real-time-type conversations; failures to connect; and advanced-economy monotony and brutality. The Question Lady called the film’s manner and tone “MumblePink,” and that’s about right, though I’d add that there’s a touch of the bleaker Godard (circa “2 or 3 Things I Know About Her”) in there too.

Despite the almost overwhelming drabness of most of what’s onscreen, I found the film pretty affecting: shrewdly deadpan and “objective,” and extremely well-acted. I semi-dozed off a few times, and the movie is anything but erotic. But it made an impact on me anyway.

Bonus Links:

• Here’s a little piece I wrote about “The Good Girl,” an American indie film with a tone that’s semi-similar to the tone of “Frog Song.”
• A helpful Wikipedia introduction to the “pink movie” genre.