Masuda Shogo

It's an August morning, with a still heat that clings to your skin. Jumonji's room, which is even more cramped and dirty than usual, is occupied by Torigai, a senior employee from his former part-time job, and a stray cat that Jumonji adores. Torigai's insistence that this room is covered in fleas because of the cat leads to the burning of a balsam, and the two, unable to stay in the room, decide to pass the time by taking a walk around the neighbourhood.

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This director is the worst and the best. The protagonist, Wakaizumi, makes films with his university friends, but despite being a director, he has no credibility at all due to his selfish and unprincipled nature. He has no finished films. All they have are rumours that he is a strong fighter and that he has eaten cockroaches. Wakaizumi says he wants reality in his films, but he does not know what reality is. Days seem to be unchanging. But as much as something about him hurts people, something about him attracts them, and the filmmaking continues. The well-crafted double structure in terms of composition, direction and camerawork goes beyond the framework of a self-proclaimed 'personal history film' and gives us the best of both worlds: fiction and non-fiction.

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If you're crying alone today, may you laugh with someone tomorrow? It's the end of November and Ayumi, a fourth-year university student hasn't received a job offer. She meets her childhood friend, Chiharu, at a company interview as the last chance. She tells her that their mutual friend Iwata is in a mental hospital. Ayumi is disappointed to hear that her boyfriend Takuya, who lives with her, is working at the end of the year and beginning of the new year, but she receives the results of the exam. Meanwhile, Chiharu gives Iwata a sketchbook that she was given before she was hospitalised, with a gift in return. It's not all good, but it's not all bad either. The film is a series of episodes that subtly capture the reality of life. The film digests a timely topic without losing its newsworthiness and makes it a film that everyone can relate to.

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This film was the first acting experience for a woman in heels and a tight skirt, who ran, climbed over walls, opened manhole covers and walked endlessly through sewers in eighty-odd shots. It is also quite unusual to have a heroine who does not laugh at all, but she responds well to the demands, which must have been mentally and physically demanding. There is no spectacular action, but rather the endurance-style escapades convey the seriousness of life. The opening episode, in which Kay discovers that her lover is cheating on her, is a fairly well put-together romantic drama, although it is often forgotten because the second half of the film is entirely an escapade. Note that the director's name, the Yokogawa brothers, refers to one person, not several.

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This director is the worst and the best. The protagonist, Wakaizumi, makes films with his university friends, but despite being a director, he has no credibility at all due to his selfish and unprincipled nature. He has no finished films. All they have are rumours that he is a strong fighter and that he has eaten cockroaches. Wakaizumi says he wants reality in his films, but he does not know what reality is. Days seem to be unchanging. But as much as something about him hurts people, something about him attracts them, and the filmmaking continues. The well-crafted double structure in terms of composition, direction and camerawork goes beyond the framework of a self-proclaimed 'personal history film' and gives us the best of both worlds: fiction and non-fiction.

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