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 he Japanese film April Story, besides having an
annoyingly sweet soundtrack, is a 1-hour film. It is a romance film at its core,
but has elements of a Fish out of Water movie in its lead heroine, a somewhat naïve
girl from the Hokkaido countryside who attends a University in cosmopolitan
Tokyo, a drastic change of scenery that she is completely unprepared for.
The film stars Takako Matsu as the lead, Nireno, the
country girl in question. I suppose calling people from Hokkaido "country
folk" is warranted, since everyone else in the movie seems to refer to
Nireno's place of origin as something akin to her having an extra eye on her
head. Nireno is at once out of her element and hopelessly alone in her small
apartment. Her neighbors talk to her from behind closed doors and peep holes and
the only girl who makes any effort to get to know her in school is the same one
who has made fun of her in front of others, and seems incapable of remembering
her name.
In order to fit in, Nireno joins a fly-fishing club, and mistakes one
Brad Pitt movie for another. If all that wasn't bad enough, a pervert tries to
get fresh with her in the theaters. We later learn young Nireno didn't come to
the University out of a need for education, but to pursue a fellow classmate who
doesn't know she existed back in High School.
April Story is a simple little story that fits
nicely into the 1-hour running length, and looks and feels like a
movie-of-the-week, albeit a short one. It opens with Nireno leaving her family
behind at the train station, and with them the comforts and familiarity of home.
Her first days at the University, as well as her first couple of attempts to get
to know her neighbors, show her naiveté and awkwardness around strangers who
have a whole different set of rules that they live by.
Of course saying that
Nireno is just a little odd wouldn't be correct, since the actual phrase to
describe her is "overly trusting and nice," and when confronted with
rude people she has no idea how to respond. In a way, April Story can be
seen as a clash of the old and the new, with Nireno representing the old, and
everyone else ganging up on the new side. The movie doesn't distinguish which
side is better, but the vast difference between the two cultures is quite
startling. Anyone who thinks Japan is one homogenous society has yet to see April
Story.
April Story is not a bad film, and if anything it's
an okay film with an okay story, and if you absolutely have nothing better to
do, or wants to relive your awkward college years over again, then I suppose April
Story is right up your alley. I feel for Nireno, and even understand her
feelings of isolation and loneliness in a campus full of kids that she has
nothing in common with. Her Fish out of Water moments are not written and
executed as being humorous, but rather awkward and even sad. I could have used
some more laughs, but the movie seems to be playing it straight throughout,
which is a shame since playing it straight also means being terribly dull. Mind
you, April Story is never completely boring; it's just not all that
interesting of a movie.
Writer/director Shunji Iwai films much of the movie with heavy and
bright filters. This lends to the dreamy and surreal quality of Nireno's journey
from home to the campus and her new, isolated life. The camerawork consists of a
series of stationary longshots where nothing happens for long periods.
If all the lack of action or a story mentioned above sounds
good to you, then April Story is for you. If not, watch something else.
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