Who's Camus Anyway? (2005)—Japanese

For their class project a group of students makes a film with the title "The Bored Murderer." When the male lead falls ill, that role falls to the very weird Takeda. At first this meets with enthusiastic approval, but when he plays his role a little too intensely they begin to wonder if he is sane or not. Before too long we realize that this film is not only about the student film and all its problems of story, budget, cast, sites, etc., but about their own lives and how their film roles and real lives merge. Goofing around with their hand held videos and camera phones they film each other making the film. Problems abound in their personal lives even more than with their film project. The girlfriend of the director Naoki is badly co-dependent and tried to commit suicide. Naoki sleeps around. Nakajo, a famous film professor, has quit working, is lonely for his deceased wife, and is obsessed with a gorgeous student. The assistant director Kiyoko breaks down in tears. In this film about film-making, life imitates art. Who's Camus Anyway? won the Best Film award at the 2005 Tokyo International Film Festival. In Japanese with English subtitles.