Some eyes are unforgettable, not only for their striking size (Bette Davis) or beauty (Paul Newman), but also for the personality that animates them. Minori Hagiwara may not be at their level of stardom but the first thing I noticed about her character in Ryutaro Ninomiya’s 2019 “Minori, on the Brink” was her eyes, scorching the patronizing, possessive men she encounters with the heat of her scorn.
Hagiwara plays a similar character in Taro Miyaoka’s “Ruined,” and I at first assumed the film was a Hagiwara vehicle made to bring out her particular brand of fire, with her eyes again drilling like lasers through pretense and lies. In fact, it is based on a 2009 play by playwright and stage director Kazuomi Makita.
Also, Hagiwara’s character, Sayo, is no feminist warrior. She is instead a struggling fashion designer in Tokyo whose older sister, Asumi (Rumi Higari), calls her with the happy news that she is getting married. For reasons the film is slow to disclose, the announcement angers Sayo. She arrives at the family home in the countryside, where Asumi is living, seething like an avenging angel and accompanied by a friend (Takenori Goto) who serves as a calming presence, if only initially.