Women in Film: Sonoya Mizuno Silently Steals The Show in ‘Ex Machina’

By David Duprey On Dec 12, 2018

I’m going to start with Alicia Vikander – obviously – writer/director Alex Garland‘s epic film on artificial intelligence not nearly as provocative if she were absent. She dominates the story, rightfully so, her performance as a humanoid robot on the verge of consciousness both uniquely touching and well, let’s be honest, mostly terrifying. I mean … that ending, right? Chilling is the word. Either way, Vikander is deserving of the praise one might possibly heap on her. I heap away.

That said, let’s talk about Sonoya Mizuno instead. And because we’re going to, let’s just be clear that major spoilers abound. Like, major major. The slightest description of her character reveals too much. So, if you haven’t seen this movie (*gasp*) then stop reading right here and go do it. Seriously. It’s on Netflix right now. I mean, you’re reading this on a (phone, computer, tablet) already. No excuses. Go.

For the rest of you, (and if you’re-joining us, you’re welcome), let’s briefly recap, the story of Ex Machina follows a nebbish-ish computer programmer named Caleb Smith (Domhnall Gleeson), who works for a mighty search engine company called Blue Book. Big congratulations for him, he just won an office contest to spend one week with CEO, Nathan Bateman (Oscar Isaac) at his far away home in the remote mountains of somewhere not where Caleb lives. By a long shot. It’s isolated is what I’m saying. Once there, Caleb learns he’s meant to take part in an exciting breakthrough featuring advanced A.I., administering a Turing Test to a new android (Vikander) to test its abilities. You know, sort of see if it thinks it’s a human. That should go very well. Hint: it doesn’t.

Living in the house with Nathan is Kyoko (Mizuno), a slender, silent woman who acts as his servant, lithfully entering a room and doing his bidding before moving on. Caleb is introduced to her when she simply walks into his room the morning of his first day, offering a tray with some breakfast, not making eye contact before gracefully exiting. It naturally raises a few questions. What Caleb learns though, in more ways than one, is that Nathan is not such a nice guy, his drinking and manic behavior causing him to be somewhat abusive to Kyoko, which in turns makes Caleb (and us) uncomfortable. Bad, Nathan.

So the big reveal is, of course, that Kyoko is not really a woman but one of Nathan’s earlier attempts at a female android, though a highly successful one. Blah, blah, blah, you know the story. This has Caleb questioning his own existence, whether he’s man or machine and if all that he’s doing in this experiment is on the up and up, ethically speaking. If we create a sentient being do we have the right to end it as well. Star Trek: The Next Generation had a pretty good episode on that at well. Damn, that was a good show.

Mizuno doesn’t speak in the film, so it’s left to how she moves in truly giving Kyoko her presence. While the three leads ricochet the plot points back and forth among themselves. Kyoko subtly drifts in and out of the story, having a few key moments that have greater impact when it draws to its disturbing end. Here’s an android woman with some sense of being but not fully evolved into full independence. How to portray that without having her speak? Well, through action, of course, and Mizuno is well, I’ll just say it, stunning, in bringing that to life.

Watch in one scene where Caleb, coming to realize that Nathan is, let’s say, slightly manipulative, approaches Kyoko as she stares at an image that seems to be desperately trying to stir some larger awakening within her. Right away I love the look on her face, that distant blankness that is sort of heartbreaking. Caleb then touches her, which instantly triggers in her what is clearly a trained sexual response, unbuttoning her loose blouse in offer of her body, clearly, we later understand, a dictated measure of her internal rules. A moment later, she is dancing, music switched on by Nathan activating this different impulse.

There’s a striking vulnerability to Kyoko that feels equally troubling for the viewer, who still, at this point, doesn’t know she is an android. Neither does Caleb, and so when that reveal does come, it not only feels like a gut-punch, but even more so, sickening. Just what the hell is Nathan doing? Nothing good for sure. That’s the point, yet it’s thanks to Mizuno’s breathlessly elegant and delicate turn as a false woman, a machine who is dressed up as one but not allowed to truly be one, that makes Kyoko so impactful.

We can talk about the themes and interpretations ad nauseum of Ex Machina, and indeed the film invites us to do so, but in all that, sort of overshadowed by the other female android at the center of this tale, is the harrowing story of Kyoko, who earns a great deal of our sympathies, who somehow finds within herself some momentary sense of justice in the final act. It’s a remarkable turn from Mizuno, who deserves a second look.