“Highschooler Akino loves her schoolmate Okada, but Okada has a girlfriend called Nacchan. While Akino is busy being jealous of Nacchan to the point of becoming obsessed with her, she realizes that she is more fascinated by Nacchan than Okada.”
“Please Don't Go Anywhere” is a hard film to pin down, given the sporadic delivery in narrative and difficulty in establishing defining moments in the plot. The odd structure and lack of a cohesive vision in the directo'rs message, understandably makes for a varied experience. However, that is not to say that the production is without any charm.
The strongest attribute, undeniably comes from the script work of Rin Shuto who is able to generate sincere and engaging dialogue between characters. However, this praise only exists on a scene by scene basis, as the overall plot suffers from a lack of cohesion or deeper explanation. As a prime example, Akino's obsession with Nacchan makes sense in the high school setting, but cutting to ten years later when they meet again, the reason for obsession is rather non-existent and confusing. Overall, this makes for a frustrating experience as there is obvious strength in dialogue in each moment, but the production really fails to make a cohesive engaging story out of its many endearing moments.
The majority of the production can be seen as serviceable, including cinematography and acting. Both of these elements don't really do anything to heighten or deter the final product. However, with this as a starting point in a young career, it does show a greater promise, as it sets the foundation for future projects where the director's vision in likely to become more refined. The music for the production, which was supplied by a band named “Polta” does however, play a key roll in the production.
Given that part of the focus of the film is on music, personal enjoyment of the project is going to vary greatly on whether the viewer enjoys the music of “Polta”, with the film featuring several numbers. Regardless of personal enjoyment of the sound, the actual performances given are rather lifeless. The music style is more akin to soft rock/pop so a lifeless performance does not feel out of place, but it does not make for engaging visuals to have static performances that make up a large portion of the runtime. Unfortunately, audiences will have to learn through trial and error if one of the (possibly) grating aspects of the production will ruin the overall experience.
“Please Don't Go Anywhere” feels like the starting point of a director and it shows signs of great potential but is too flawed by simple choices, and lacking a strong/confident narrative voice. Admittedly, I also found a strong distaste for the music of “Polta” and having to listen to full length songs of theirs a practice in patience. As previously stated, the music is subjective and will certainly make for varied experiences, but as someone who disliked the music I am aware it hurt my overall impression of the production. Given the availability of the film through Japanese Film Magazine, (at the time of writing) the film is worthy of an audience, and hopefully will function as a rough beginning for a future talent in Rin Shuto.
