One of the best films at Japan Cuts is slowly finding a permanent place in my heart. It's the quiet story of two damaged people who collide and become better people as a result.
Misa has severe problems wit PMS. She is being treated but it makes as they are adjusting her mes she is still uneven emotionally. Eventually she finds a place she likes working that makes science toys for kids. There she meets Takatoshi who has severe panic attacks which force him to have daily rituals and to be a loner. What happens when they meet is the film.
This isn't what you expect and we are better for it. This is the sort of low key, yet joyously involving slices of life that no one in America really does. Its a film about people, end of story. There is nothing more than that, no grand drama, no romance or comedy, just lives being lived. The films are very much like novels. And yes this is based on a novel.
I was directed to this film by a friend who was dying to see it at Japan Cuts. He had been told by a friend who raved about it in such loving tones that he had been trying to track himself a copy of the film. The love with which I was told about the film made me want to see the film too and instead of watching the new Takeshi Kintaro film as my first Japan Cuts film it was this one. The result was it set a level of greatness for the fest that I don't think any film can match.
This is glorious filmmaking. It's pitch perfect acting. It's cinematic joy of the highest order.
Don't get me wrong- there are no artificial highs and lows- just life as lived and time among people we want to hug and never ever let go. It's simply the story of two people who were changed for the better by knowing each other.
You MUST see this- trust me it's going to be one of you gems of the year-its on my best of the year list.
ALL THE LONG NIGHTS plays Japan Cuts on July 16. For more info and tickets go here
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