Following a series of TV dramas and features, Momoko Fukuda returned to the short format, adapting the homonymous, feminist novel by Kanako Nishi.
You Are Lit is screening at Short Shorts Film Festival and Asia
The 25 minute short begins with two young women, Nashida and Hamanaka, dancing wildly in the street, repeatedly showing their unshaved armpits to the crowd that surrounds them, watching them dance and cheering. The story then takes a step backwards, some time before, with the two soaking in a public bathhouse, while commenting on the patriarchy that dominates Japan, by stating facts as female representation among the political body (just 9,7% while women make up half of the country’s population). After going to a comedy show where one of the male members of the group is mocked for his appearance, and after witnessing a girl in a company of four in a restaurant being criticized first for never having a boyfriend and then for stating she had a girlfriend once, the two girls decide to lash out and start dancing their hearts out. Eventually, they meet again with the two aforementioned individuals, while a man with burning feet also makes an appearance.
Despite the permeating quirkiness and Japanese style of absurd comedy, what Momoko Fukuda has shot with “You Are Lit” is actually a polemic film that turns against a number of preconceptions that are what make Japan conservative, patriarchal, and essentially, racist. The insistence with how people should look, behave, act, and that both men and women must take very particular paths in life in order to avoid standing out, which seems to be a cardinal sin in Japanese society, is criticized thoroughly throughout the movie. That these preconceptions have come to dominate life in general, with the people who do not abide by the “rules” deemed pariahs and are ostracized is presented through the plethora of episodes in the movie, with Fukuda managing a very appealing balance among comedy, absurdness and rather serious commentary.
That the protagonists eventually decide to “flaunt” their diversity and frustration by letting their armpits unshaved and dancing like crazy in the street, eventually amassing a crowd of followers is presented as an act of resistance, with Fukuda, however, showing that even acts like that can be cannibalized, with the photos-for-pay episode highlighting this comment quite eloquently. The burning aspect on the other hand, does remain a bit vague, particularly regarding the man with burning feet, although the burning armpits in the end give a more clear message, about putting the aforementioned preconceptions “on fire”.
The aforementioned balance permeates all aspects of the movie. The acting is the foremost example, with Nashida and Hamanaka being portrayed with a theatricality and excessiveness that actually fits the overall aesthetics to perfection. The editing, with the abrupt cuts and the flashbacks also moves towards the same approach, which is cemented with the bright and shine cinematography, as much as the set design, with the bathhouse being a prime sample.
Probably the best aspect of Fukuda’s work in “You Are Lit” is the way she uses a Japanese style of filmmaking in order to criticize Japanese ways, in an approach that is both entertaining and communicates her comments quite eloquently.
