updated review: here is my sketch of a thesis after thinking about this for some time: this film is an extreme representation of globalized, neoliberal culture, and that is not really a good thing. global culture is reflected in the plot (a multi-lingual theatrical production of a Russian play, which carries cultural references to French and American cinema); it is reflected in the form of the film, whose extreme length and pacing is more in line with a miniseries than a film. television, of course, being the new global form. the setting of hiroshima, which is an iconic japanese location for very different reasons than, say, tokyo, bears international significance for its role in WW2. there is also something about the bland pleasantness of the film, the soundtrack, the lighting, the highly modern architecture and interior locations, that to me is in some way representative of the similar inoffensive, inclusive, agreeable surface that neoliberalism strives to achieve for itself.
i was shocked when the credits rolled. felt like a miniseries.