Dark Feathers: Dance of the Geisha 2024 (Unchaseable / Lankis Entertainment) Review
Dark Feathers: Dance of the Geisha does have some interesting ideas on paper. The film follows Kate, who is a ballroom dancer. Seems like a normal hobby right? Only problem is, each of her dance partners who has taken a interest in her have disappeared or died. Remy, a private investigator, decides to take interest in Kate and see where the mystery goes. The film combines samurai culture with ballroom dancing, and the potential is there, but the film can’t quite fire on all cylinders.
The main issue is Crystal J. Huang’s performance of Kate herself. She comes off as a bit to flat at times, with her accent making some of her delivery feel a bit awkward. (This is another film I recommend watching with closed captions on to help you follow the story). There are times where her performance matches her mysterious persona, but other times she doesn’t captative you. Thankfully, she is supported by a good supporting cast. Gilles Marini delivers a pretty solid performance as the detective, and his wife played by Karina Smirnoff does pretty well to. Lan Kay and Kysosuke Mukai also suffer a bit from a flat performance. Perhaps they could have spoken in their native languages with subtitles to give the film more of that samurai feeling and make the Asian clan more mysterious.
Dance Panther, or a lover killer? What secrets hide behind that smile.
The movie features a lot of dancing, and cinematographer Pascal Combes-Knoke backs it up with some nice shots and framing. One shot that overlooks a view of windmills in the distance is quite epic looking. The film features a cadre of first-class dancers, including Ukraine-born international dance competition champion Karina Smirnoff, and prestigious Blackpool Dance Festival finalists Iveta Pauryte Faraci and Andrea Faraci. So the dancers definitely know what they are doing and they can be fun to watch. But I feel like the editing could have highlighted the dancing in a more engaging way.
The plot starts out interesting enough. As Remy becomes Kate’s dance panther, he soon becomes fantasied by her. His wife, soon begins to get frustrated. She even has a funny line where she yells “Do you even remember you have a wife?”. The serial killer / love affair angle makes you think the film will do some cool stuff later down the line. But the film keeps some things in ambiguity, and there are some odd character choices that happen. Remy’s wife, Amelia, goes from hating Kate to falling in love with her, quite quickly I might add where it feels like I missed some scenes. The film also ends with a whimper instead of a bang.
This is a excellent place to take a dramatic phone call.
The film is also very dialogue heavy, with a lot of scenes with just the characters talking. There isn’t enough tension to make the serial killer angle tense, with the film veering towards a more soap opera drama. Like I mentioned, Dark Feathers has the right tracks in place, it just needs more fuel to ride the line and make it a bit more engaging and exciting.
