In the last couple of years we have witnessed the development of people creating their own safe spaces and bubbles. Considering this is the age of streaming, social media and influencers, this should come as no surprise, and you could make the argument that this process has only been propelled by the pandemic. Societies, politics and even systems of education have to figure out a way to deal with this development which may have severe consequences for our lives, with people unable to act compassionately or social with one another as we can see with conversations on social media and also in real life, for example. Given his predilection for characters building their own safe spaces, only to have them see it being destroyed, Japanese director Kenichi Ugana may be a suitable candidate to tackle the issue, which he has done on his recent feature “The Girls”, that premiered recently at Festival du Nouveau Cinema Montreal.
“The Girls” review is part of the Submit Your Film Initiative
The story centers around three women (played by Momoko Tanabe, Kaoru Koide and Kokoro Morita) who seem to live inside a forest where they have created a small hut for themselves. They are meeting to have a meal together and while Girl 1 is preparing the meat as well as the other ingredients, Girl 2 arrives late, starting a conversation about “The Walking Dead” and her recent thoughts on self-harm and death. After a while, Girl 3 joins them, carrying a bag of fast food, which she felt a craving for, despite the meal which has been prepared. As they start eating and their discussion continues, we start to realize there is something more serious going on, because although the three of them try their best to remain light-hearted in their conversation, there is a darkness that is about to enter their safe space.
Check also this interview
While many stories struggle to make even the most outlandish scenarios exciting and entertaining, Ugana again proves he can work with a very minimalist set-up. This is also due to his sense of pacing, although he takes his time introducing the setting and the characters first before we get to the first dialogue. The safe space the three main characters have constructed is providing the notion of security for them, but you can see the first indicators of this concept crumbling, for example, in the nuanced performances by each actress, which is later confirmed in their dialogues about death and love.
In many ways, “The Girls” feels a lot more contemplative and philosophical then Ugana's past efforts. Much like “Extraneous Matter”, “The Girls” can also be regarded as a story about loneliness and love, as both emotions are clearly visible in the interactions of the three main characters, who find solace in their company, while also longing for something else (indicating they have spent far too much time in their safe space/ bubble perhaps). With the sounds of conflicts becoming increasingly more direct and obvious, it seems to be clear Ugana wants his feature to be understood as a kind of parable for what has happened to us as a society. It is not so much the conflicts in the world that have forced us inside these safe spaces, but rather our own nature and other developments that have made us prefer the security of the bubble. There is a bleakness to the vision Ugana presents in “The Girls”, which is new to his work, but which seems to point at where we are heading if we stick to our own safe havens rather then seeking interaction with the outside world.
“The Girls” is a well-crafted and minimalist feature about our sense of security in recent times and what it could lead to. Kenichi Ugana directs a very relevant movie about the need for interaction with our world if we truly wish to make a difference.
