Daigo Matsui has been fascinated with making pictures about youth and adolescence since his debut effort “Afro Tanaka” (2012), but the native of Fukuoka departs from his usual track and takes us into a day of a life of a few kooky people working in the storied Funabashi Grand Sauna which at the current moment, sees it singing its final swan song.
Aufguss is screening at Short Shorts Film Festival and Asia
Funabashi Grand Sauna is closing its doors after 50 long years in the business. But Toji (Satoshi Motoori) powers on like a steam engine. His boss discovers the hardworking Toji-san and chases him out of the laundry room, to enjoy the sauna for the last time. As patrons flood into the establishment, the erstwhile floor-mopper instead prepares for the final performance of his pièce de resistance amid an air of mystery surrounding the mist.
Right off the cuff, Matsui's short film grapples with the many facets of Japanese society and especially public bath (sento) culture. We begin with Toji overworking (Otsukare) and extending his shift into the three-hour-long Aufguss. Then Yoroshiku kicks in (with employees leaving the sauna's closing a secret from the customers), leading to calmness, pacifism (Shouganai), and a touch of the downright bizarre (Banzai). It is a nicely packaged tribute to the one place so loved by Japanese across generations.
The etchings of whimsy Japanese humor are plastered throughout with how the film presents bare-bottomed nudity next to the aufguss ceremony which is as strange as it sounds. The guests lounge around and stare into blank spaces, taking in the bliss surrounding them. The environs offer them a respite from the toils of life. And likewise, the viewer is brought into an evocative thought space of mindfulness. Are we living the best life we could? Do we stop to smell the roses? Is there more to life?
On the flipside, “Aufguss” also captures the bittersweet longing of that last-day feeling. The rush of memories and emotions that come with that moment is portrayed wonderfully on screen by Satoshi and gang, with a playful nod to previous sento-inspired pictures like “Melancholic” (2018) and “Mio on the Shore” (2019). But unlike those films, “Aufguss” offers up plenty to ruminate on without an agenda, since this is a short film that is as innocuous as it gets. All it requires is for you to sit down, relax and bask in the stillness of it all.
