Out (2002)


Four women working nights at a package lunch factory are confronted with a problem when one of them kills her violent husband. Her friends agree to help her dispose of the body and must act quickly to avoid being caught. The four leads each have problems of their own; Yayoi is a young pregnant housewife, Masako feels isolated being ignored by her son and husband, Yoshie has to care for her disabled mother, and Kuniko is deep in debt. Despite, or perhaps because of these problems the four all pull together to accomplish this difficult task.

The actors do well with the eccentric characters and there are scenes of real emotion here. The films main failing is that it doesn’t really work as either a comedy or a horror but falls somewhere in between. A few of the comedic moments are funny, but the women never seem in danger of being caught. The film is based on a novel, but due to running time ends up excising most of the plot to the point that very little is explained in detail and the ending feels tacked on.

The story is centred on the lives of the four main women and their stories are interesting, particularly Masako and Yoshie, but again not enough time is given to exploring their feelings. The film does do a good job of expressing the sentiments of the drudgery, loneliness and meaninglessness of existence for many modern housewives and there are amusing moments. The concept here is strong, but it could have been done much better.

Based on the novel by Natsuo Kirino.