It’s
easy to play up the bittersweet moments in an American Graffiti-style end-of-an-era night of partying. However,
if you can find the best parts in the hangover than you’re really onto
something. Buckle up, because it is going to be a heck of a party in Masaaki
Yuasa’s The Night is Short, Walk on Girl, which screens
during the 2017 Fantasia International Film Festival.
It
starts with a wedding, but the after-after-party is where it’s at. Than these
Kyoto college students are off to enjoy the night life of the nocturnal city
that apparently puts both New York and Las Vegas to shame. The Senpai
(upperclassman) would like to chat up his crush, an underclassman known simply
as “The Girl with Black Hair,” but he is painfully shy, He gets ribbed by his
friends, but frankly they are even worse, especially Don Underwear, so-called
because he pledged never to change his under-garments until he finds the
mystery woman he fell in love with during a brief chance encounter. If the
logic of his strategy escapes you, just backburner that thought for now.
The
Senpai will follow the Girl with Black Hair as she struts through the college
district nightlife like an animated Holly Golightly. It would be a bit
stalkerish if he weren’t so ineffectual. They might actually be meant for each
other, but first the Girl with will get a lesson in exotic cocktail history,
assist the Puck-ish God of the Used Book Market restore cosmic balance to the
free flow of used books, and step into the lead role of a guerilla theater
troupe’s floating production.
Kyoto
looks like a heck of a fun city and the Girl with is an absolutely charming
companion to share it with. There is probably more alcohol consumed in Night is Short than a typically sloshed
Hong Sang-soo or Thin Man movie, but
there is more to it than that. In fact, the wild night catches up with them,
sending nearly everyone to their sick beds to nurse colds and flus, except Girl
with. As she starts tending to her old and new friends, certain aspects of the
night come into sharper focus.
Night is Short is a rarity among animated
films, because it maintains a light, whimsical vibe, while not including any
objectionable material, but it clearly has an adult sensibility. You need to have
lived through a few nights like this, albeit without the surreal flights of
fantasy, to fully appreciate the film’s intoxicating vibe.
Yuasa’s
style is also rather mischievously flexible. He slides up and down the scale from
representationally realistic anime to dayglo candy-colored abstraction, but
somehow he maintains a consistency of tone and attitude. It is just a trip to
take in all the visual confections.
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