Winner of the 2023 Pia Film Festival Grand-Prix, “Retake” follows the newest trend of indie Japanese cinema, of films about films, taking the concept, though, quite far.
Retake is screening at Japan Cuts
High schooler Kei takes photographs as a hobby. He frequently captures his crush, Yu, whose singing and dancing on the streets of the town they live in fascinate him, to the point of having a crush with her. One day, she catches him in the act, and essentially blackmails him into becoming the cameraman of a movie she wants to shoot. She also wants him to find a lead actor, and he asks his blond-haired funky friend Jiro, who likes to draw and is thus cast as a painter.
Yu’s classmate Umi soon comes on board as the lead actress, acting alongside Jiro as a couple who journey to a land where time has stopped. The two actors hit it off immediately, adding a new level to the proceedings. The team realizes their sound is lacking and secretly ‘borrows’ a proper mic from the broadcast club. Kei impulsively hires Yu’s ex-bandmate Alisa to record, but there seems to be some tension between the two girls, which he did not anticipate. As the story unfolds, we follow the five of them in their moviemaking trip, while their interpersonal relationships are also on the fore.
The first part of the movie follows a straightforward narrative structure, introducing the cast and their respective roles within the filmmaking process. Yu emerges as the clear leader of the group, guiding them as they work on their movie project. The interpersonal dynamics are also established early on: Kei has a clear crush on Yu, which she seems to ignore; Jiro and Umi hit it off and develop a connection; Alisa appears disgruntled, not only about her role in the production but also about something deeper within her.
The second part however, is where the meta level comes to the fore. Kota Nakano implements recuts, retakes of the same scenes, back and forths in time as if the story is taking place within an editing room, a kind of Rashomon effect and a number of other tricks, which actually become parts of the narrative, in the most organic way. The part after the ending credits cements this approach while the fact that the story of the characters also progresses in parallel emerges as another sample of Nakano’s intelligence. The context of time, and living in the moment, again as part of both life and filmmaking, conclude the rather rich context here.
Granted, close to the end, he somewhat loses his sense of measure, repeating the aforementioned ‘tricks’ too many times, to the point that it becomes annoying to a point, while prolonging the duration unnecessarily to almost 110 minutes. However, considering that Nakano is also the editor and the cinematographer here, and that this is his feature debut, some of these issues could easily be excused, particularly since his overall approach is definitely quite smart.
Regarding the acting, the protagonists seem somewhat inexperienced, but as a whole and due to their chemistry, they definitely work. Urara as Yu stands out, particularly for the way she move and sings, while Yuta Muto as Kei highlights his inability to express his feelings convincingly. Nako Ohara as Umi and Ryusei Chiba as Jiro highlight their lovey-dovey relationship (their words not mine) in adorable fashion, while Areina Takano as Alisa portrays her disgruntlement and the change she undergoes nicely.
All in all, there is a certain level of amateurism, low-budget and one-man-show sense here, that deems “Retake” a film not exactly for everyone. However, for those who manage to look beyond the movie’s shortcomings, Nakano’s intelligence and the particularly smart meta approach definitely impresses in a rather hopeful debut.
