Fasten your seat-belts and train your fast reading abilities to follow up the 8-minute long poetry slam karaoke voiced and acted by Hirai Mako in the visually dazzling short “Tokyo Girl” by Nebiro Hashimoto. The uninterrupted monologue spoken in manic speed, only seemingly flat-out emotionless, stands in strong contrast with the subjective, diary-like chain of thoughts that comment everything from sharp observations of the buzzing Tokyo life to deeply personal experiences avalanching out in a wild medley of socially-critical, self-analytical and apologetic statements.
Tokyo Girl is screening at Japan Cuts
The visual interpretation of the narrative is as bouncy and vertigo-inducing as the monologue itself, mercilessly spewing out images fitting to the words. A discrete sound of the solo performed on the accordion melts with the rhythm, and the editing magically pieces all puzzle bits together. People shown either on the crowded Tokyo streets or squeezed as sardines in the public transport become pawns moved across the chess board to be eaten by the frenzy of modern life, but before meeting their fate, they are verbally set in the mechanically constructed roles of the Japanese society. Sometimes, they are greeted by glitzy lights of the city in full celebration of different festivities, but mostly – they are just swallowed by the grayness of their everyday life.
The space limitations are used to explain the dread of an unwanted contact, comparing them to the first intimate sexual encounters, engraved in the memory as unpleasant as having to brush shoulders with an over-weight co-worker. Emotionally and physically claustrophobic public spaces present themselves as small battlefields for personal identity. A brief shot of a man with the protruding belly penetrating space in a packed subway train hammers the nail an inch deeper before the monologue swooshes back to the subjective recount of the woman's willing intimacies from the past. She becomes more personal, questioning her own decisions and feelings, recognizing the need to be loved.
“It seems as if the me today has conducted the Command C and Command V function on my yesterday self”, a smartly vocalized thought about the contemporary disconnection with real life through the addictive power of the virtually-altered reality in which the need for perfection wins over the genuine, brings the problem of the second, digital life” into focus. Pictorial signs penetrate the screen, merging with other pictures reflecting on love, gender roles and the fears of a young woman forlorn in Tokyo.
For “Tokyo Girl”, Hashimoto deservingly won the Cinema Fan Award (Pia-Nist Prize) at the 41st Pia Film Festival.
