Shady

Directed by Ryohei Watanabe
2012, 94 minutes
Currently out on release on DVD from Third Window Films

Review by Mike Sullivan

Ryohei Watanabe is a relatively new director who has previously acted in a couple of TV programmes and who produced, wrote and directed his first movie – Shady. It is an incredible debut movie which had an estimated budget of just 1,500,000 yen, or about £9,000 and was released in Japan in 2012. It features a cast of relatively unknown actors and actresses, and won the Entertainment Award at the Pia Film Festival and was nominated for Best Debut Feature at the Raindance Film Festival.

The movie has a narrative by the main character Misa Kumada, known as ‘Pooh’  because her surname contains the Japanese character for bear. From the beginning it is clear that the main story follows her past experiences at high school while infrequently we see her as an adult in the present. At school she is lonely and unpopular, and from time to time is bullied, until one day she is approached by pretty Izumi who seems intent on making friends with Misa.

In many respects it resembles a typical coming of age movie, as teenagers becoming adults, but with the touching story of two lonely girls making a deep connection. For the first time Misa has someone to talk to, even her parents notice that she is suddenly on her phone a lot, and Izumi is very generous to Misa, helping her and supporting her. There are some aspects which count against this movie though, for example a fellow student who bullies them is a bit too stereotypical and the main character fits into the typical image of a quiet student with low self esteem who sticks out like a sore thumb.

However, considering that the two main characters have had little experience in acting, Misa is played by singer Mimpi (stage name) and Izumi is played by Izumi Okamura (岡村いずみ) who recently graduated from Keio University, it is a very good performance. Furthermore, soon after becoming such good friends the story starts to take a dark turn which demonstrates that this movie is far from a typical coming of age story. If Izumi is displeased, then she is really displeased. One day Misa can’t walk home with Izumi because she has to clean out her beloved aquarium in the biology club, however when she gets to the biology room she finds Izumi on the floor next to a smashed aquarium on the floor. Misa’s fish don’t survive and Izumi cries as she asks for forgiveness and says it was an accident.

From this point onwards the movie has an increasingly dark tone which leads to a very surprising ending. At 94 minutes this film felt like it really packed a punch in a very short time, and I for one was left wanting more.