shunji iwai is an independent japanese filmmaker specializing in dreamy melancholia. despite that, he has worked in many genres, although he is most popular for directing the coming-of-age hits all about lily chou-chou (2001) and hana & alice (2004).

these are several short musings on his films in one post.

fireworks, should we see it from the side or bottom? (1993) (tv movie)

even in tv budget and form, shunji iwai still delivers. nostalgic and surprisingly emotional.

fireworks don't last forever. just like children. their innocence and sincerity will blow into ashes as they grow old. fireworks are colorful, just like childhood. childhood is a burst of color that will become ashes.

this is what this film is. that momentary euphoria, wonder, and melancholia in seeing the seriousness in trivialities of life, and seeing the trivialities in seriousness of life.

the fireworks festival might be mundane for an adult, but to a kid it's as big deal as something like someone's wedding: it must be great, nice, and perfect. and therefore they must prepare to see it. adults do not feel this way anymore, but children feel the euphoria. because at that age, something like 'are fireworks flat or round' and 'we should elope to tokyo' are equally the same in the eyes of a child.

and in the end, they must choose the answer that will affirm their lives. this is a surprisingly good coming-of-age film. this easily beats out any made-for-tv movies in existence.

so, are fireworks flat or round? should i see it from the side or the bottom?

love letter (1995)

how are you? i'm fine

i'm at loss for words....i don't know what to say. This started off as a really twee young-adult drama but the second half got me in tears....the grief, longing, clinging, all felt real.

it's so tempting to send letters to people who are no longer here. i know i do. and i wish i could do that. i don't know if i want someone to respond to it though....

when you had memories that shaped you as a person, it's so hard to let go —— you cling onto whatever's left in your memories. other people's memories of your memories becomes a refuge from longing and grief. this is....beautiful.

helps that i do like the name 'fujii itsuki'. 'fujii' is one of my favourite surnames of all time from any language/culture, and 'fujii itsuki' is a tight name. so unique and yet normal. hearing people say 'fujii itsuki' is music to my ears. I don't know what i'm talking about....i just like the sound of the name. naturally when the name comes up, emotions fill me.

so cold yet so warm, only shunji iwai can make something like this. this is a masterwork in romance, mood, and atmosphere, along with editing and cinematography.

wonderful, i never wanted this to end. i want to see more of them.

everything about this film is both sad and comforting. shunji iwai is a great director.

april story (1998)

longing makes you try for new things. longing gets you to place full of strangers. somewhere far from home.....because you wish for that longing to bloom into home.

like cherry blossoms, everything blooms. musashino in uzuki's eye is a flower she wants to see bloom into her. and so musashino becomes a flower she tends. most of the film is just uzuki getting used to musashino, a place where she longs for something, and then musashino bloomed on her, getting her closer to her longing. the last part of the movie is just wonderful.

shunji iwai takes us to a dreamy trip and plays with our emotions, as usual. and he's just great at it.

#review #writeup #DirectorSpeedrun #ShunjiIwai #Letterboxd

is the internet truly artificial when real life is so artificial that it becomes an awaking dream? when real life no longer needs us, can we turn to the internet to find others who need us?

shunji iwai asks those questions in his 3-hour dreamy epic a bride for rip van winkle (2016), through the nomadic journey of a woman in the artficial city of tokyo...and her attempts bring realness in her life through internet.

(note: the all lowercase writing is an intentional choice for my writings about shunji iwai. it just fits with his films)

underneath the massive buildings of Tokyo, it's all loneliness with a lack of connection. nowadays it is truly difficult to find meaningful relationships, and as a result, we often become nomadic in search of people to connect to, often through social media. It sucks, it really does. a “nomadland”, if you may.

the worst part of these nomadic search for love and companionship is just as you think you found the one, they're gone.

do we actually need eachother?

a bride for rip van winkle wonderfully illustrates the frustrating attempts to be needed by other people. nanami is a nomad, both literally and figuratively, as she looks for home when she does not have one, and looks for people who need her, and people she can need. and most of it are frustratingly harsh. she uses the internet to find meaningful connections as real life took her one meaningful connection away. and she got it, but real life finds a way to ruin it.

If all about lily chou-chou (2001) is about how the internet (stan culture, to be exact) provides escape from the real world that does not understand us through shared love of an artist, thena bride for rip van winkle is about how we use the internet to attempt to add 'reality' to our artificial looking reality through finding connections with other people in it.

shunji iwai is as profound with the internet in 2016 as he was back in 2001. granted, the interwebs in 2016 is another world compared to what it was in 2001, but one thing remains: the internet is a place to escape from loneliness.

Even the tokyo setting works, nothing screams 'fake' and 'full of (metaphorical) masks' than tokyo. people come to tokyo to get by and get bread after all, not to make friends. and how do we cope with the fakeness and artificiality of real life? the internet. when compared to real life, the internet feels less artificial by comparison. and then the artificality of real life becomes a dream.

the usage of classical music is wonderful, heightens the emotion and themes, as well as enhancing shunji iwai's trademark dreamy tone of the film. It says something when air on the g-string is used in the climax, where classical music —– symbol of formality —– playing in the background of informality and shattered masks shows what people truly are. informal, draped in formal curtains, desperate to take off formalities in a world that is indifferent to them no matter how formal they are.

the characters of nanami and mashiro are great —— characters who can't fit the formalities of tokyo, who needed figurative masks to live, as the most symphathetic and meaningful ones in the story, which also informs the film's theme of 'formalities' that we must mask ourselves in just to get by.

amuro (who owns a company named 'aznable' —— shunji iwai definitely ships char/amuro), himself is a complex person. we don't really know if his intentions are actually genuine, or even good, but it says a lot about us. as long as we can find connection through people like amuro, so be it.

shunji iwai knows what people are like on the internet age, and the artificiality of reality as time went on. an awaking dream where you are aimlessly wandering, wishing for a long sleep to wake up in a hopefully better future.

wanted: a bride for rip van winkle he is alone....a bride will alleviate his loneliness, at the very least

p.s: go in this film blind. don't look up synopsis or w/e. Just go with the flow.

#review #writeup #DirectorSpeedrun #ShunjiIwai #Letterboxd