San Francisco IndieFest 2025 Coverage
Strangers review
An atmospheric movie about stealing an identity to find one’s own.
Festival movies will not contain spoilers.
Strangers
Directed by Kenta Ikeda
Written by Kenta Ikeda
Starring Ayaka Onishi, Hyunri, Reiya Masaki, An Ogawa, Yoshinori Miyata, Ryo Sato, Ryo Iwase and Shoichiro Tanigawa
Strangers Review
The more genre or independent film festivals you cover…the more you become accustomed to strange movies. It’s something that you have to keep in the back of your mind when discussing or reviewing them. Strangers is the kind of film that someone who watches a lot of oddball movies might just chalk up as a bit weird and move on from. The casual viewer, if such an animal exists for independent genre films, would undoubtedly look at it differently. My takeaway from Strangers is that it’s a quietly patient character study whose ending becomes a bit too muddled. You may find that quiet patience…the tone and feel of the film…more than worth experiencing the experiment.
Naoko (Ayaka Onishi) feels stuck. She’s pushed around at her temp job…trying to make things work with a cheating boyfriend…and dealing with the trauma of a past stalker. Her coworker Saki (Hyunri) appears to live a more glamorous life…and is the talk of the office. When Saki abruptly quits and disappears…Naoko finds herself with an unexpected, and life altering, opportunity.
My struggles with Strangers all stem from time spent looking for more. The story sets up several interesting subplots…that it seems to be less interested in than I was. Is it a mystery about the missing Saki? A relationship drama between Naoko and her cheating, absentee boyfriend? A lowkey horror story about a stalker? A burgeoning romance between Naoko and a new acquaintance? It’s all those things…and none of them. Let me explain.
Strangers is simply about Naoko. It’s a pure character driven story about a young woman who’s handed what appears to be a second life. All the subplots exist…and are touched upon from time to time…but they don’t drive Strangers forward. Only Naoko does. There’s nothing wrong with this. In fact, the almost hypnotic approach to Naoko’s character arc is the highlight of the film. But you almost can’t help but wait for another shoe to drop. Instead, Strangers dangles them by the laces and pulls them away at the last second.
The inciting incident here involves a dating app that Saki was using. Naoko has her phone…and begins to answer date requests as Saki. She pretends to be the girlfriend of a client (a lonely widow, a single man attempting to impress his family, businessmen) and gets paid for keeping them company. The dates only last an afternoon at a time. She can stop the interaction at any point…and is in full control. In return, her financial struggles begin to disappear and, more importantly, she finds herself gaining confidence.
Strangers is, largely, about just that. Talking to strangers. Allowing yourself to be someone else in front of people who don’t know you. Or, perhaps, the most confident version of yourself. The glow up does come with some dangers, however. At least…the perception of danger. Naoko feels like someone is watching her. She’s haunted by her boyfriend’s ex who stalked her before. There’s also that Saki disappearance weighing on her. Also…one of her clients isn’t what he appears to be. The atmosphere of Strangers puts the full force of outside fears onto Naoko while she grows stronger inside. It’s successful at conveying both changes. In large part because Ayaka Onishi is fantastic as Naoko.
As Naoko, and the viewer, look around for the inevitable threat…Strangers starts to run into its main issue. If the story is never really about anything other than Naoko…the extra stuff struggles to feel important. Strangers is a purposefully slow-moving story. It adds to the atmosphere and allows Onishi full time to shine. But it’s also slowly moving towards an ending that is more confusing than cathartic. Confusing not in an “I have no idea what’s happening” way…but in a “feels like there should have been more to this” way. If you find the confident ride there worthwhile…Strangers has a lot to offer. If you want definitive resolutions to its many extraneous strands…you may feel left a bit cold.
Scare Value
Strangers is a movie about extreme ups and downs. It’s atmospheric and well-acted. It’s also slow and ends up being a bit confusing. Lulls in the story lead you to worry there is no endgame here. Instead, the endgame is accompanied by a head scratch. Enough works in Strangers to make it a watchable curiosity. Not enough happens to make it feel important.
