Artist in Person
(Mizu no naka no hachigatsu). One of the oddest films in Ishii's extremely odd career, August in the Water is alternately a teen romance, an environmental fable, and a science-fiction thriller whose eerie ambience comes across as a drugged-out X-Files. Izumi is a new girl at school who is befriended during her high-diving exercises by the talkative goofball Ukiya and his quieter, cuter friend Mao. Their fast times at Genmai High won't last, though: meteorites are hitting the earth, supernovas rage through the galaxies, drought stalks the land, and everywhere people are literally turning to stone, the liquid of their bodies suddenly hardening. An accident opens Izumi's eyes to unknown forces and a world ruled by the whims of nature, not man; whether Mao will join her there is a different story. Hallucinogenic, beautiful, and willfully esoteric, August in the Water makes little concession to the literal-minded; its dream logic serenely unveils countless metaphors, each harboring countless meanings.