Director: Yasuhiro Yoshiura
Year: 2014
Genre: Drama/Animation
Short and simple were the first thoughts I had about this film. It's certainly another hidden gem I don't think I would've heard of if I've asked 50 people - perhaps out of them 50 people, three of them would know it. Even I've never pondered upon this film until today.
The film is about Akio Honjou, who is a secondary school student and has the talent of recalling any music piece which he only has to hear once, where he meets Juri Makina, a person who's in his class. He hears her ringtone and eventually, the pair connect through the music tone. Also, the film focuses on the ability of each individual having the ability to read what's going on in each other's respective thoughts.
This film is a simple short film which lasts for about 25 minutes and has many narrative elements that make it an underrated gem to watch. Some stories only need a short amount of time to tell a story, whereas other films which last for almost an hour fail to capture an audience's attention to a film.
The film certainly focuses on how each individual can connect with people by having the ability to enter each person's world, especially with the two characters having musical backgrounds and being able to connect through music and how Akio can tell Juri how the music she wrote made him feel. Based on dreams Yuri can write a piece of music, which is able for Akio to dream about her exact thoughts which allows the pair of them to connect more.
The film also focuses on loneliness. It showcases Yuri's flashbacks from the past which shows how the music she makes hurts people who don't understand her music. Music is a form of art - sometimes a person can't understand the piece the artist is writing; however, there will be other people who understand the piece the artist is trying to write. This causes her to have negative thoughts towards creating music and it almost makes her think about whether creating music should be a thing for her or not. This is certainly an element of something which people like her can relate to, and it almost makes the audience think about the times they've gone through what she has done.
However, the creativity element of having the ability to read people's thoughts and feelings is something I think stands out in the film. Having that telepathic mind to connect with a person and having the same interest as the other person - which is shown with the two characters. My only downside with the film is perhaps showing how Akio built that ability of being able to identify music from a singular note and being able to build upon it, but since it's a short film, I'll give it a pass. It's a short film for a reason, so certain elements of the film won't be shown.
This film is a film I've not come across that much. Sure there might be similar films which I've watched in the past but this film I would say can have that uniqueness to it. It's short and simple, and it's not too long to watch.
Rating: 9/10
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