Member of the Berlinale Talents 2015, Yuichi Suita has also worked as an assistant cinematographer for Yoji Yamada's films and has shot at least 10 shorts, a number of which have found their way to film festivals around the world. “But It Did Happen” is his latest one.
“But It Did Happen” is screening at Skip City International D-Cinema Festival
A woman opens the curtains just as the sun is rising and then proceeds on preparing two bento boxes. Reluctantly, she knocks the door of a room in her apartment, but receives no answer. The narrative style of the movie is expressed quite eloquently here, as the what is happening is implied rather than spoon-fed to the viewer: most probably, she is the mother of a hikikomori.
In the next scene, we see her sitting in her car by herself and then in a classroom where just two female students are studying. She asks one of them, a girl with glasses and two lengthy pigtail braids, about Ms Sasaki, another student, who is missing, with the girl replying she saw the girl in question just before. She then meets another women who mentions a police interrogation, before presenting her with the Emergency Response Guide for Student's Suicide. The woman is her director and Ms Sasaki has committed suicide. Again, eloquently implied but not spoon-fed, while a comment here about the way schools deals with suicide is also presented: they go by the book, literally, as they follow the instructions of a manual in a precise, but also insensitive to the point of inhumane way.
In the next scene, she is again with the girls she was previous with, recording their upcoming conversation, in a procedure that unfolds like an interrogation, with the pigtails girl eventually mentioning that they bullied the girl, without, though convincing her teacher. The two girls leave, but first ask for permission to practice some more, implying that the protagonist is a music teacher.
After the third scene where she is in her car by herself, in a repetition that showcases her alienation and loneliness, as she seems to have no interaction with colleagues or students outside the mandatory, she meets a woman who seems to be the mother of the deceased. The confrontation is palpable but subtle, as both women follow the “etiquette”, not showing particular emotion, despite the fact that they are essentially arguing. In the end, the mother asks the teacher to report the death as an accident, in another rather pointy critique on the way parents, and essentially Japanese society treats these incidents: still trying to avoid the stigma instead of trying to find the reasons behind and essentially, improve. Essentially, almost everyone want to deal with the event by pretending it did not happen, in a comment that also connects the narrative with the title.
The two girls then are shown practicing the piano, playing Chopin's “Tristesse”, the only music heard in the short. The last scene has the protagonist returning home, eating the bento she prepared in the morning, which is still untouched. The events of the day had some impact on her, though, and this time, she opens the door to the room even when no one answers knock. This time she needs to check on her daughter.
Yuichi Suita's direction is utterly meticulous, with each of the frames being perfectly constructed, lighted, colored (mostly in pastel colors), acted and shot, in a way that shows his intense attention to detail. The result is exquisite, both in terms of visuals, but also in terms of context, with the way he has chose to make his comments being ingenious, in a style that is equally laconic, measured and eloquent. Furthermore, the editing gives an excellent rhythm to the movie, as dictated by the few movements we witness, exclusively deriving from the simultaneous motions of the two girl students.
Lastly, Yoshiko Tatsumi in the protagonist role gives an impressive performance, in perfect resonance with the overall aesthetics, emoting intently through very few words.
“But It Did Happen” is an impressive short that shows that Suita took the lessons he got from Berlin and implemented them excellently within a distinctly Japanese contextual frame, resulting in one of the best short movies we have seen this year.
