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The Sound of Summer
Blu-ray A - America - Unearthed Films Review written by and copyright: Eric Cotenas (27th June 2023). |
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The Film
 During the hot summer months of June through August in Japan, The Sound of Summer is the song of cicadas, much to the consternation of a coffee shop server (Kaori Hoshino). The heat saps her energy during the day and the cicadas keep her from peaceful sleep at night. There is one regular customer she and her boss (Kiyomi Kametani) have dubbed "Cicada Man" (Shinya Hankawa) since he collects them daily and feeds them in the shop while ignoring his regular order of a steaming hot coffee. Just the mere proximity to cicadas gets our protagonist's skin itchy. One night she dreams (or so she thinks) that the Cicada Man has entered her apartment, after which her skin breaks out in a rapidly spreading rash. When her doctor surmises that the rash is psychosomatic, she resorts to using insecticides… on herself. As her constant itching breaks the skin, she becomes increasingly convinced that the Cicada Man has put the insects inside of her and she resorts to painful methods to extract particle evidence to convince her doctor that the parasitic infection is not just in her mind. When the Cicada Man starts stalking her, she starts to wonder if she is doing more than merely incubating cicadas. Written, photographed, edited, and directed by British ex-pat Guy (aka Guy Pearce, but not that one), The Sound of Summer is a minimalist, vaguely supernatural spin on the "body horror" genre which – in spire of the increasingly gory bouts of self-mutilation, cutaways to Cicada Man feeding human flesh to his bugs, and a surreal stop-motion, reverse-motion, human/Cicada metamorphosis finale – very possibly could be a vivid psychological delusion on the part of the protagonist a la The Stendhal Syndrome. Filmmaker Guy steadfastly resists any kind of certainty or differentiation between subjective and objective reality; yet the effect is never so maddening as to frustrate the viewer thanks to the focus on the increasingly insular world of the protagonist and the imaginative (if economically-realized) climax. Guy's previous two long-form shorts Difficulty Breathing and The Rope Maiden are apparently popular in Japan but have yet to make it stateside.
Video
Shot on high definition video – particulars unknown – The Sound of Summer's 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.78:1 widescreen presentation does what it can with a low budget feature in which most of the exteriors are intentionally overexposed to convey the heat of the summer while even the more evenly-exposed exterior scenes a rather high contrast grade. Lighting and exposure are better controlled during interior scenes – particularly the protagonist's apartment which appears to be at least partially – while the textures of the prosthetics seem uncomfortably realistic in some shots and very rubbery in others (some actual macro shots might have made the bugs and wounds creepier but it also seems like some faux-macro digital defocusing filters have been used for some of the extreme close-ups). 
Audio
The sole audio track is a Japanese LPCM 2.0 stereo track featuring clear dialogue, aggressive scoring – including music by Singaporean musician Microchip Terror – incessant cicada singing, and some sounds of bug skittering and flesh tearing that get "under the skin." Optional English subtitles are free of any noticeable errors. 
Extras
Extras start off with a lengthy behind the scenes (45:19) segment composed of plenty of goofing around, blocking rehearsals, some raw footage of the scenes, set building, and a look at the make-up effects including a discussion of whether a latex arm or a silicone one is more convincing and Hoshino reacting to her facial rash make-up in the mirror. The Tokyo Talkshow with the creators of "The Sound of Summer" moderated by loud and legendary director Shozin Fukui (34:31) – as it is labeled in the menu – features Guy joined by Koizumi Kyósuke and Nozomi Tomaki, directors of the film's co-short feature Loud. The director describers how the film was inspired by his first experience of Japanese summer compared to his British ones, bouts of near heatstroke and the bugs he encountered in Japan that do not exist back home. Microchip Terror and second camera operator Dave Jackson – director of the horror short Cat Sick Blues and its feature spinoff also put in special appearances.  Fukui also makes an appearance in the Japanese Premiere (42:26) credited with introducing the presenter to Guy's The Rope Maiden (which he likens to the underground American horror film August Underground. Guy rehashes his stories about his inspirations for the feature – also noting that he first mistook the song of the cicadas as the sound of broken electric power lines (a sound which may be more relatable to viewers living in places that do not have cicadas) – but the moderator does provide more background on Guy's well-received earlier shorts (which are on DVD in Japan). The disc also includes the film's theatrical trailer (1:47) and a trailer for Difficulty Breathing (0:41) which hopefully hints at a stateside release.
Overall
The Sound of Summer is a minimalist, vaguely supernatural spin on the "body horror" genre.
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