Saying “I loved the cinematography” to a director about their new film is a classic insult, implying that the only thing to praise is the look since the substance is so lacking.
Photographer and director Mika Ninagawa not only invites this sort of snark about her films but positively revels in it. Beginning with her acclaimed feature debut, the 2007 period drama “Sakuran,” her offerings have been riots of visual excess, overwhelming the eye and mind. It’s easy to zone out from the sensory overload, like a dazed kid who has devoured a fruit cake.
Her latest, the fantasy “xxxHolic” (stylized as “xxxHOLiC” and pronounced “Holic”), is over the top in everything from its splendidly gaudy kimonos, which could have been sourced from the “Sakuran” storeroom, to its setting in a floridly imagined world of witches and evil spells that make the “Harry Potter” films look austere.