Lost in the 21st Century

"We Can't Go Home Again" a Japanese film directed by Fujiwara Toshi, was screened in the Forum section. Almost entirely improvised, Toshi’s film offers an in-depth image of Japanese youth and society in 2006. It’s a film that lingers in the mind and shows various kinds of lifestyle and relationship.

There are five young people, all struggling to find the meaning of their existence. Mao works as an editor in a publishing house – specialised in books on cinema! – but feels she doesn't have sufficient knowledge and experience for her job. And wherever she goes, she’s followed by the same mysterious young man. Mao is jealous of Yushin, a university student who has joined the publishing house as a part-time worker, because he knows more than her about films.

Kurumi works as a "Queen" in an S&M club. Every weekend she goes to a park to meet Masato, a graduate student. And Atsushi always carries a Polaroid camera and takes photos everywhere he goes, not of the places he visits, but of his own face. It seems that these five individuals have nothing in common but, as the film progresses, we discover that all of them are away from home because of studies, work, or simply because they have nothing else to do.

The subtlety of the film emerges in the numerous extended shots, in the course of which one notes the almost subliminal links that bind the characters. In certain long shots, one might glimpse at least four of them in haphazard fashion. They meet each others as strangers in the reality of today’s urban world.

It’s hard to identify intimately with Mao, Yushin, Kurumi, Masato, and Atsushi because the Japanese way of acting is placid and emotionally restrained. But it’s certainly interesting to watch how their lives develop and to gain an insight into the Japanese way of life.

Soumaya Beltifa

© Berlinale Talent Campus 2006