With “Echoes from a Bridge” Bilal Kawazoe follows the success of his award-winning short “Whole” (2019) and introduces an unlikely couple. Kawazoe, who grew up biracial and bilingual in Tokyo, tells about the encounter between an old night guard, played by Keiji Yamashita (“Melancholic” 2018), and a drunken salaryman. As the old man stands silent on his post on a bridge, the talkative clerk gets his gossip off his chest, which turns into a daily routine.
Echoes from a Bridge is screening at Skip City International D-Cinema Festival
Only 15 minutes long, the film models an atmosphere of solitude and loneliness. Using the nocturnal backdrop of an urban industrial zone with harbors, residential areas, bridges and water reflections, one can easily relate to the feeling of the characters. A sad instrumental soundtrack highlights the combination of high-resolution pictures and emotional coldness. The salaryman who tries to break the silence and get in touch with a non-responsive environment resembles the isolated situation during the pandemic. His empathic plea towards the guard ultimately bears fruit in a brilliant anti-climatic finale that withholds what could have been the first words of the old man. The director leaves it up to the audience, going out not with a bang but with a sudden end like Miwa Nishikawa (“Sway” 2006) does in many of her movies.
The shiny and moody cinematography shows Kawazoe’s eye for detail and makes good use of depth of focus. Different from “Whole” (2019), the characters do not have a minority background but represent Japanese working-class townspeople and their need for communication. “Echoes from a Bridge” pushes the idea that everyone needs to express feelings. This raises awareness for the most overseen social issues of isolation, which caused many mental health problems.
“Echoes from a Bridge” comes in very quietly. Relying on the power of outright perfected images, the former assistant director of Naomi Kawase manages to convey a timely message within a fitting presentation.
