After having its world premiere in October at the Tokyo International Film Festival, “Sayonara, Girls” by Nakagawa Shun has been slated to have its theatrical release in February next year. A coming-of-age movie, it reifies sentiment in memories that make youth an inimitable part of one's existence and explores the decisions that young people suddenly make at the conjuncture of departure, of bidding goodbye to a point in their lives that they could never go back to.
Based on the 2012 series of short stories by award-winning writer Asai Ryo called “Girls Do Not Graduate”, the movie chronicles the last few days left in the high school lives of four girls, who happen to belong to the final batch of their academy as their school will literally be dismantled and torn down into pieces after their graduation. It's a setting ripe for reminiscing, jolting realizations and a race against regrets.
The race against regrets part is played on heavily here, as the characters, Manami Yamashiro, Yuki Goto, Kyoko Kanda and Shiori Sakuta all have but one last chance to rediscover new depths and dimensions to themselves as well as the relationships they have formed before they close this particular chapter in their lives. Each student needs to confront her own particular kind of pathos and person in order to move on.
Sketches of their struggle are strewn all over certain spaces of the school: Manami in her cooking club, Yuki in the music organization, Kyoko in the basketball court and Shiori in the library. They left unanswered questions there as well as secrets, the four walls in each room literal witnesses to their highs and lows.
Nakagawa lends a quiet approach to the film, with shots that singe the familiar in the mind and celebrate the ordinary. Save for one core part of the story, the soft hues and the consistent cinematography shows no room for hyperbole. There is just the natural gradation of emotions as the characters face the inevitable turning of pages in their respective journeys.
It's the acting of the four young actresses, Yumi Kawai, Rina Ono, Rinagisa Komiyama and Yumo Nakai, that gives the film its color. Manami's story has the most evident devastating roots and Yumi, who's also known for her role in “Plan 75,” portrays her well. It's Yumo, however, who plays the reserved and friendless Shiori, who draws empathy. She shows how lonely high school life could be and how each day can be a test of survival. This is the kind of angst and deleterious isolation that young people can actually drown and get lost in and she shows this in a subdued but impactful manner.
“Sayonara, Girls” is a simple homage to the delicate unfolding of youth and an honest reminder that there are moments that could never be revisited and re-done. Farewells are inevitable and so is the permanence of impermanence.
