''Earthquake Bird'' is a 2019 psychological thriller film written and directed by

Wash Westmoreland Paul Westmoreland (born 4 March 1966), known professionally as Wash Westmoreland and previously known as Wash West, is a British director who has worked in television, documentaries, and independent films. He frequently collaborated with his hus ...

based on the 2001 novel of the same name by

Susanna Jones Susanna Jones (born 1967) is a British writer. Her debut novel, '' The Earthquake Bird'' won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize a Betty Trask Award and the Crime Writers' Association John Creasy Dagger. Biography Born in Hull, Jones spent her chi ...

. It stars Alicia Vikander, Riley Keough,

Naoki Kobayashi is a Japanese dancer, choreographer, actor and model. He is a performer of J-Pop dance and vocal group Exile, and is a leader and performer of J-Pop dance and vocal group Sandaime J Soul Brothers. He was also a member of Nidaime J Soul Brother ...

and

Jack Huston Jack Alexander Huston (born 7 December 1982) is a British actor. He appeared as Richard Harrow in the HBO television drama series '' Boardwalk Empire''. He also had a supporting role in the 2013 film '' American Hustle'', portrayed the eponym ...

. It had its world premiere at the

BFI London Film Festival The BFI London Film Festival is an annual film festival founded in 1957 and held in the United Kingdom, running for two weeks in October with co-operation from the British Film Institute. It screens more than 300 films, documentaries and shor ...

on October 10, 2019. It was released on November 1, 2019, before digital streaming on November 15, 2019, by

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

Plot summary

Set in 1989

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

, Japan, Lucy Fly ( Alicia Vikander) is a young Swedish female immigrant who is working as a translator at a manufacturing company, and is suspected of murder when her friend Lily ( Riley Keough) goes missing in the wake of a tumultuous love triangle with Teiji Matsuda (

). The plot of the film is interspersed with flashbacks of Lucy's childhood, as well as scenes of her romantic relationship with Teiji and friendship with Lily Bridges, an American expatriate. Teiji's hobby includes taking photographs of people, particularly women. Teiji would eventually start a sexual relationship with Lucy and later with Lily. During a vacation to Sado Island, Lucy's friendship with Lily sours when she discovers that Teiji has begun a romantic relationship with Lily behind her back. Following the disappearance of Lily, Lucy is arrested and interrogated by Japanese detectives. Lucy claims that she murdered Lily in a fit of jealous rage, but is cleared after the body is identified as belonging to someone else. After being released, Lucy discovers evidence in Teiji's photo collection implicating him in Lily's murder and disappearance. Teiji attacks Lucy but she kills him in self-defense. The film ends with Lucy in a cemetery with her Japanese friend Natsuko (

Kiki Sukezane is a Japanese actress from Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture, working mostly in American productions. Biography Kiki Sukezane was born to parents both of samurai descent; some ancestors were involved in the 1860 Sakuradamon Incident on the side of the ...

), reflecting on the past.

Cast

* Alicia Vikander as Lucy Fly * Riley Keough as Lily Bridges *

as Teiji Matsuda *

as Bob *

as Natsuko *

Ken Yamamura Ken Yamamura, born , is a Japanese actor best known for playing the younger Ichirō Yashida / Silver Samurai (sharing the main antagonist's role with Haruhiko Yamanouchi) in the 2013 film '' The Wolverine'', and Takashi in the 2014 remake of ''G ...

as Oguchi *

Yoshiko Sakuma is a Japanese actress. Her son is actor Takehiro Hira. In 1957, Sakuma was scouted and signed her contract with Toei film company. Following year she made her film debut with ''Utsukushiki Shimai no Monogatari Modaeru Soshun''. In 1970, she mar ...

as Yamamoto *Akiko Iwase as Ms. Kato

Production

In August 2016, it was announced

would write and direct the film, based upon novel of the same name by

. Michael Schaefer, Michael Pruss, Ann Ruark, Georgina Pope will produce the film, while

Ridley Scott Sir Ridley Scott (born 30 November 1937) is a British film director and producer. Directing, among others, science fiction films, his work is known for its atmospheric and highly concentrated visual style. Scott has received many accolades thr ...

will serve as an executive producer on the film, under their

Scott Free Productions Scott Free Productions is an independent film and television production company founded in 1970 by filmmakers and brothers Ridley Scott and Tony Scott. They formed the feature film development company Percy Main Productions in 1980, naming the ...

and Twenty First City banners, respectively, with Amazon Studios originally set to distribute. In March 2018, Alicia Vikander and Riley Keough joined the cast of the film, with

distributing. In April 2018,

joined the cast of the film. In May 2018,

joined the cast of the film, with production beginning that same month, in

. Sado Island was also used as a filming location.

Release

It had its world premiere at the

on October 10, 2019. It was released on November 1, 2019, in a

limited release __FORCETOC__ Limited theatrical release is a film distribution strategy of releasing a new film in a few theaters across a country, typically art house theaters in major metropolitan markets. Since 1994, a limited theatrical release in the Unite ...

before digital streaming on November 15, 2019.

Reception

On the

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average of . The website's critical consensus reads, "Riley Keough and Alicia Vikander give it their all, but ''Earthquake Bird'' suffers from a frustrating inability to bring its literary source material consistently to life." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film holds a rating of 48 out of 100, based on 10 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Earthquake Bird (film), The 2019 films American drama films American psychological thriller films British drama films 2019 psychological thriller films Films based on British novels Films set in 1989 Films set in Tokyo Films scored by Atticus Ross Films shot in Tokyo English-language Netflix original films Scott Free Productions films Japan in non-Japanese culture Japanese-language Netflix original films 2010s American films 2010s British films