The Asian Cinema Critic

Sayaka Kai makes the bold claim that creating humans only to decapitate them is bad, in her sleepy sci-fi drama.

Good science fiction comes with a heavy burden: typically it has something to say about the world we live in, and the world that we could live in. From speculative science, to political satire, sci-fi as a genre can’t get away with being shallow the way romantic comedies or police thrillers can. So when it comes to stories we’ve seen a lot – such as this movie’s take on clones – the plot needs to have something interesting to say, or risk boring or patronising its audience.

It’s a shame, then, that Adabana left me thoroughly bored.

Shinji (Arata Iura) is a wealthy man who, it could be argued, has taken much of his life for granted. He lives comfortably, save of course for the terminal illness that is taking him. He has a Unit almost ready for him to use, but opts to do something unusual: he wants to see his Unit. From this first encounter, through to another where the two actually speak, Shinji begins to respect his clone, and has something of a crisis of conscience.

Adabana could be seen as Baby’s First Clone Movie. What it has to say is nothing exactly fresh. Clone stories have been metaphors for veganism, classism and wealth disparity over and over again since time immemorial, and Abadana doesn’t really offer any new perspectives. There is a hint of a strong theme: Shinji is like a CEO, or any millionaire, who doesn’t appreciate the lives that have to be crushed in order to keep his position. It’s not bad in theory, and what’s there is done lightly enough that it doesn’t feel hammered, but in a movie like this, where everything is so languishing, a bit of hammering wouldn’t hurt it.

Honestly, where this film fell apart the most for me was in its abysmal pacing. The film is loaded with very, very slow pans and frozen camera angles. Characters barely move, or emote, or react. And the sheer lack of soundtrack means it’s not always clear whether a character’s frozen stare is meant to be wistful, creepy or what. 

Arata Iura and Kiku Mizuhara (who plays the lab’s administrator) are the movie’s biggest draw. Iura especially does a good job playing two sides of what is effectively the same character, but nurtured in different ways. His dual-roles give the hint of a deeper, more interesting story, yet it fails to deliver. Honestly, there are tonnes of good films like this. Rutger Hauer’s improvised speech at the end of Blade Runner has more going for it thematically than this thing did in its trudging, tedious 90 minutes.

At the end of the day there just isn’t that much that Abadana has going for it. It wasn’t particularly awfully made or anything (it actually looks pretty nice!), and it’s not like it had bad themes, but just everything it was doing was either wholly unoriginal, or unbelievably slow. Abadana is a film with 20 minutes of solid footage, stretched out to 90. We’ve seen this before, but better. Abadana is certainly a clone, but I can’t feel sympathy for it.

Verdict: A couple of compelling performances can’t save Abadana from tedium, not even a full head transplant.

Overall entertainment: 3/10
Violence: -2/10
Sex: 0/10
Themes-o-meter: A generous 5/10
Setting: Something something virus in the future. It doesn’t matter
Clone physiology: It’s always bothered me that clones always have the exact same musculature as their original in films. Surely they work out more often? Or not at all?

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Adabana (2024)
Also known as: 徒花
Japanese

Director: Sayaka Kai
Writer: Sayaka Kai

CAST

Arata Iura – Shinji
Kiko Mizuhara – Mahoro
Toko Miura – Woman in the sea
Yuki Saito – Shinji’s Mother
Sumire Ashina – Shinji’s wife