Winner of Best Picture in the Japanese Short Category in Skip City International D-cinema Festival, as well as in Fukuoka Independent, “Unscripted Life” (aka “Who Knows about my Life”) is a very Japanese short which manages to portray a number of aspects of the life of women in the country in the most amusing way.
Unscripted Life is streaming on TodoiF
The story begins inside a restaurant, where the employees of a company are having dinner with their boss, Mr Sado, who is, however, quite drunk, and quite handsy with one of the female employees, who tries to remain polite while avoiding his “flirting”. Another employee, Junko, gets out of the bathroom only for him to ask her to sleep in her place since the time has passed and there are no trains to take. Her reaction is quite surprising, as she starts running away in all speed a bit later, while he is still paying the bill. She is actually the protagonist of the movie, Junko, a single 40-years-old, who continuously denies her aunt's proposals for an arranged marriage. One day, as she is sitting on a bench beside a river, a paper airplane flies out of nowhere and lands in her hands. When she opens it, she realizes it's a marriage registration that has only the husband's name on it. Intrigued, and eager to test her fate, she decides to search for the man.
Through a rather entertaining quirkiness, which derives mostly from Junko, the way she makes her decisions, and particularly the fact that she decides to run instead of facing parts of reality she does not want to, Teppei Isobe comments on the life of women in contemporary Japan. The behavior of her boss, who treats the women in the company as some sort of geishas, the pressure from her family to get married, and the difficulties of forming relationships in the megalopolis are all presented cheerfully but eloquently here. Furthermore, the concept of running, and the way it is presented, and the whole episode with the “potential husband” add even more to the narrative, stressing especially the last of the aforementioned elements, while inducing the short with a very welcome element of comedy.
Lastly, that Isobe manages to depict all these aspects in the just 27 minutes of the short highlights his economic direction, as much as the editing, which induces the movie with a very fitting, relatively fast pace. The cinematography is also on a high level, with the scenes in the narrow streets the first night and the view from the terrace towards the sky being the apogee of this factor.
Hiroko Yashiki is excellent in the role of Junko, being quite convincing in her inner struggle, hope, and disappointment, while presenting a character that remains quite likable throughout. The award she won for Best Actress at Suginami Hero Film Festival is utterly justified, while watching her run. Occasionally in her heels, is a true joy.
“Unscripted Life” (aka “Who Knows about my Life”) is an excellent short that manages to make a number of social comments in just 27 minutes while retaining its entertainment factor at all times.
