PEEP "TV" SHOW (Japan / 2004)
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*A 2006 U.S. Release* 



Blurring the line between fiction and documentary, Yutaka Tsuchiya's DV-shot Peep "TV" Show boldly examines the lives of a few disaffected Japanese youths attempting to make sense of the paranoia-ridden post-9/11 world. Set around the first anniversary of September 11, the film takes place in Tokyo's Shibuya district, which is deemed by a few as their own "Ground Zero." (Incidentally, the term's most common usage previously was to reference the devastation caused by the nuclear attacks on Japan.) The title pertains to a website run by Hasegawa (Takayuki Hasegawa), an androgynous street-youth who voyeuristically films the locals day and night with his minuscule digital camera. He's eventually joined in his endeavors by Moe (Shiori Gechov), a lonely Goth girl perpetually donning a baby doll outfit who chooses to offer herself in order to become part of the website. 

Peep "TV" Show is more a series of vignettes rather than a fully-fleshed narrative. This allows Tsuchiya to easily navigate between various characters, most of whom being the consumers of Hasegawas website. (Reportedly, real people played themselves.) They include a young computer geek who has no intention of leaving his small, studio apartment; an office worker who finds no other comfort in his life besides sleep; a porn connoisseur always searching for bold new grounds, etc. While Hasegawa's character remains somewhat of a blur (perhaps intentionally), Moe's is vivid and heartbreaking. By her own terms, she's less of a cult figure than simply someone trying to find an identity in the post-modern world. All of the testimonies end up presenting the sort of reality that is sought by these very individuals.

While well paced and edited, the film overall is less "cinematic" than Koreedas Distance (2001) and Iwais All About Lily Chou-Chou (2001), two other recent Japanese films that have taken recent tragedies and their overall effects on youths into account. However, its specificity in terms of culture, politics and technology ultimately becomes an important distinguishing factor. Also, these individuals feel all too REAL members of the world which according to them has lost its "reality." As one character rightfully puts it: "It's not us, it's the world that's messed up."

Grade: B+
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*PEEP "TV" SHOW premiered at the Rotterdam Film Festival in 2004; it won the FIPRESCI prize there. The film was released on DVD by Facets (U.S.) earlier this year.