Reviews

Born with it tells a story of struggles of half children growing up in a homogeneous society. One day, a half kid Keisuke moves to the countryside from Tokyo and transfers to a new elementary school there. At the new school, he faces discrimination. He is regarded as having AIDS by most of the classmates because of his skin color, and he has no friends except for one boy. One day, he finally tells his suffering to his mother, and mother takes him to the hospital to let him have the opportunity to be officially told that he doesn't have AIDS by the doctor. I thought his mother is such a nice mother, and I was impressed with her words: "It's not up to others to decide what kind of human being you are. You have to find the confidence to show people this is who I am." In this film, the suffering is caused by skin color, but the lesson can apply to everyone living in the society.

Otousan no tabako is an amazing short film about a little girl trying to buy a cigarette for a sick father. The father often gives money to her daughter and let her buy a cigarette for him. One day mother detects that she is often buying a cigarette and gets it away from her telling that cigarette is bad for health and makes people die. However, her father asks to buy again and again, so she tries to get it somehow again and again even though she knows that cigarette is bad for health. One day her father quit asking and gives up. The reason why he suddenly gives up having cigarette was not clearly depicted, I was a little bit surprised. Overall, I liked it except for its title, because te title tells everything.

Firefly Dreams is a film shoot by a foreign filmmaker, but it was full of Japaneseness. The story is about the interaction between a high school girl Naomi and senior woman Ms. Koide. Naomi is a rough-and-tumble girl, smokes and drinks, and often skips school. One day, her father suggests staying in the countryside during the summer. She is very reluctant but accepts. At there, she meets Ms. Koide who is over 80 years and having dementia. She gradually enjoys her life in the countryside but gets a call telling that her father is dead. After a while, she is told that her mother is going to get married again, and gets the news that Ms. Koide is in danger, and then died. At first, she thinks that living with relatives in the countryside is very troublesome, but she gains, learns, enjoys a lot. I lliked this fim because the suffering of Japanese teenagers at that time is beautifully depicted. However, the ending was open so that some people might think the way of end the story is a little bit vague.

This film is based on the sad history, discrimination, and massacre of Jewish people. There are two boys who like to play the piano, one is Jewish, and the other one Heinrich is not, and they are best friends. One day, Heinrich's mother finds that her son is gone, and misunderstands that he went with his friend because she used to tell him they are going to the Toyland. She asks and explains to police that her son is gone and she is not Jewish, and she finally reaches the train carrying only Jewish people. The door is opened, but Heinrich is not there, the boy stands there was the friend. Then she understands everything, and she is pretending that he is Heinrich and saves the friend. When I was watching that scene, I was so nervous and felt my heart beats so fast. It was so relieving to see that kids are saved, but still questionable that this kind of things is not likely happening. I liked it because the structure of this film and acting are wonerful.

Tricking the audience is one of the qualifications of exciting and impressing films, and this short film: The Crush is very good at it. There is an elementary school boy who is having a crush on his female teacher, and one day she gives her a ring of toy. She is very happy about it, but she does not take it seriously and she keeps treating as a kid. Also, she has a boyfriend. One day, the boy calls out her boyfriend personally with a gun and he tries him to promise he doesn't marry her because the boy thinks he doesn't deserve it. Since the boyfriend is terrified by the gun, he said very inappropriate things and made her disappointed. The pure crush of one guy reveals the bad guy's innermost nature. Including audience, everybody thinks that the gun is a real, but actually is a toy until the end. One of the reasons why audience is tricked is because of intentionally showed the scene of the boy's father hiding his gun, and the boy watches it. I learned the filmmaker can use any scene for reasoning main characters' behavior.

In the film, there are some features that remind audience of the Great East Japan Earthquake. The impression that I got from this film is each of them are facing difficult problems in daily life and those individuals are trying to overcome the sadness and tackling the reality. Moreover, end roll of the film told me that those people are from different countries, and this made me realize that the Great East Japan Earthquake stays in the heart of not only Japanese people but also people all over the world because a whole world is connected somehow. The moment that those main characters are not knowing each other but come across in the last was very nicely describing that each people are connected and sharing painful memories even though we are unacquainted. Even though this film has no dialogue, the facial expression of actors and music are enough elements to understand what happens in the film.

This film is just four and half minutes long, but makes the biggest impression on audience, and it makes audience think so many kinds of things after watching it. There is a woman who is seemed like very tired of daily life, and she is getting on the train as usual. But there is one very unusual thing happened that one strange guy starts introducing himself and says that he is looking for a lady who can share the true love. If you are agreeable with the suggestion, he want that lady to get off the train at the next station. Finally, she gets off the train, but the man does not get off and says to the woman that "I was only a sketch...." It is just a show and she was used as a part of the show. After watching this movie, audience might think that "Do rest of the passengers also know it's a show because everybody is laughing while he is acting?" or "Do they give the money after the train departs?" Since audience is also deceived at same time, this type of show gives very big impression and shocks after watching and it remains for a while.

One day father and daughter go to lake by bike, and only he rows a boat and leaves there. After that, no matter how the weather is, she comes back by bike to see her father. On the sunny days, rainy days, and stormy days, she never gives up, but cannot see him for a long time. However, one day they finally see each other again at the dried-up lake covered with so much grass. This is one of the most touching short films that I have ever watched. The most interesting point is even though it doesn't have any dialog and only have a back-ground music, it is enough to understand its story and feel sympathy with the father and daughter in the film. At the moment of start watching, the music brought me a sense of loneliness, and it made me very emotional. Also, the simple visuals, not using so many colors and complicated detailed pictures don't allow me to directly see their facial expressions, but it left a space for me to think their thought through the move of reactions. It never let audience tired to see and follow the next developments.

Three Days in Kamakura is a very short film, but we can see the realistic daily life and human relationship of those people who are struggling with the gap between their ideal and actual life. David and Keiko are a married couple. David works as an English teacher for kids with some stress in Japan, and they have no kids for some reasons. One day, one of the kids of the English school is left because no one come to pick the kid up. Then David takes him home temporarily. However, he was almost thinking to adopt him as a own kid by himself, but Keiko stopped him and called police to let him come back to real family. At first, I get the impression that David and Keiko were having very hard time of communicating each other because of the stress caused by the fact they cannot have the kids. They do not have any conversations but audience can understand that situation by how they act and how the director depicts. Throughout the film, it is exceptionally and beautifully depicted the realistic daily life of human kind.

Lunch Date is a short film of 10 minutes. It seems like a comedy film, but I find it is not interesting, but I feel that very natural human behavior is depicted. It is shot in a train, and the white woman is the main cast. One day, she misses her train, and goes to a restaurant for killing time until the next train and buys a salad. She leaves table to grab a fork, and after coming back, she finds that a man is eating her salad. She thinks it is weird and says "It's my salad" for several times, but he never stops eating. At last, after leaving the restaurant once, she comes back to the restaurant because she realizes she left her stuff there, and finds out that her whole salad is left at the seat behind the man's and it is misunderstanding of her. It seems that the restaurant staff knows that it is her misunderstanding, but he never tells her. I thought it is very natural human behavior. We might think that "Why does he not tell the truth to her!" as audience, but actual world is very passive like in the film. Also, at the end, she passed by the man asking for help, but she just ignored and still excited for her good fortune. I thought she is better to return the courtesy by helping a man, but it seems like she is not aware of it. I though these human behaviors are sad but quite natural.