Yudai Chiba is a famous actor and model, who has also won the Newcomer of the Year award at the 2017 Japanese Academy Awards, for “The Magnificent Nine”. The previous short he participated in SSFF & ASIA with, “You” netted the Best Actress award for lead actress Sairi Ito. He is now back with his latest one, “Harmonia”
Harmonia is screening at Short Shorts Film Festival and Asia
The short begins with an actor giving an interview about acting and the mentality of actors. The question about the connection of lying and acting eventually leads to a more personal question, and from his reaction, it seems that he is actually feeling lonely. The next scene moves to a completely different setting, where two women, Non and Yuri, and a man are doing party preparations in a small bar/restaurant. The birthday boy, Yoshiaki, the actor who was talking before, arrives, but because they are not ready they make him go out and come back again. He plays his part with a humoristic excessiveness and a rather amusing rapport between the four begins just after, as they sit and eat.
They drink a lot of wine and talk about their lives and food, until one of them, Mon announces that she is pregnant and they all start talking about having a baby shower for her. The non-pregnant ones take a stroll in the night after the party has ended, talking about relationships and kids. Yoshiaki seems a bit more drunk than the other two. Just as the other guy tells them that his boyfriend confessed that he loved him, he receives some very bad news on the phone.
Yudai Chiba directs a film about the relationship of four friends, using the fact that they are quite different, in order to make his comments. These revolve around being single, family, children, raising them and having a career, death, and of course, acting, as in the intro of the short. The whole thing resembles much a stage play, as it focuses almost exclusively on dialogue. The changing of scenes provides a cinematic value, but the fact remains, although watching this approach is actually quite entertaining.
The parts about acting, in the beginning and the end, emerge as the most interesting ones, probably due to the fact that they are rarely heard in movies, while emitting a somewhat personal essence. The way the interview scene appears both in the beginning and the end of the movie works nicely for the short, particularly for the way Yoshiaki changes the mentality he had initially, to something more confident and disillusioned.
One could say that the main message about being single and ‘leaning” in your friends even if they are not the ones that will be beside you when you die, echoes quite realistic, giving hope to a lot of people who live life like this, without having a spouse and children, something that seems quite prevalent in Japan today. At the same time though, Chiba also shows that the opposite is ok too, ending the whole thing in a positive fashion, not polemic in any way.
Hayate Ichinose as Yoshiaki is quite appealing to watch, particularly in the interviews and the purposeful buffoonery he exhibits in the party. Haruka Kudo as Non and Hiccorohee as Yuri showcase their differences and the fact that they care for each other convincingly, with the apologizing scene being one of the most memorable in the whole short.
“Harmonia”, although quite simple cinematically, thrives due to its context and the chemistry of the protagonists, resulting in a short that is both easy to watch and provides food for thought.
