わたし達はおとな 「Watashitachi wa Otona」
Release Date: June 10th, 2022
Duration: 108 mins.
Director: Takuya Kato
Writer: Takuya Kato (Script),
Starring: Mai Kiryu, Kisetsu Fujiwara, Rio Kanna, Kurumi Shimizu, Kokoro Morita, Toori Sakurada, Hirona Yamasaki, Reiko Kataoka,
Saturday Jul 23, 9:00pm
Film at Lincoln Center
Grown-ups is an original romantic drama by Takuya Kato, a playwright making his screen debut with this feature. In charting the breakup between two 20-somethings who are unprepared for the responsibilities expected of adults, he offers an antidote to the saccharine sweetness of countless romance films with happy endings.
The plot essentially follows the rupture that occurs in the relationship between an art design student named Yumi (Mai Kiryu) and her boyfriend Naoya (Kisetsu Fujiwara), a theatre student who dreams of becoming a director, after they find that she is pregnant.
The context of the drama is campus life where everything gravitates around smartphones, sex, and university assignments. The locations are mostly lecture theatres, coffee shops and canteens. The characters are almost entirely drawn from the student body. We see that they are middle to upper class from their apartments and clothing, the fact that they can go on holiday and they can dream of jobs in the arts. The emergence of a child puts the brakes on Yumi and Naoya’s playtime and conflict arises. There is nothing new here but how it unfolds is the unique point of the film.
We enter their relationship at the delicate moment just as morning sickness hits Yumi but just before the couple know for certain that a child is on the way. However, the film is told in a non-linear manner so we get scenes from different points of their relationship following on from the intro: we see the characters before they meet, the moment when the paternity of the child is raised, the romantic spark that occurs when Yumi’s freelance work of making flyers for Naoya’s theatre troupe puts her in contact with him, and the relationship coming apart at the seams.
The technique of intercutting things, indicated visually via a change in aspect ratio, adds foreshadowing and poignancy to what we are watching as we compare and contrast what the two kids are going through and what they are losing. And it would be fair to call them kids, Naoya especially, because, even though they are eager to grow up, get jobs, get drunk, and get laid, they show little maturity and the film’s title proves to be quite ironic.
While class isn’t so much of an issue, gender is and some substance is found in the differing reactions to the pregnancy and relationships in general that the male and female characters have.
The film paints a convincing picture of modern sexual mores, especially with so much colloquial language and a frank depiction of desire and lust that the characters demonstrate. For young women, there is a freedom in expressing their attitudes to sex that feels very modern but the male characters show regressive attitudes to women through a disregard for many things from the use of protection and contraception to the agency of the women in their lives. Perhaps a commentary on the intransigent nature of misogynistic attitudes. How these attitudes affect the characters is very telling.
We get the sense that Yumi feels pressured to give in to male demands and to coddle the men who are around her, be they romantic partners or not. The instances of sex she experiences are all about male pleasure and they ultimately prove to be let downs – and shot unflatteringly, too boot! It is only when talking to an older female character (Reiko Kataoka) that reality bites for the young woman and romantic illusions fade away. Her journey through the film feels like a critique of the way women are expected to perform in society and how they are ultimately the ones left taking responsibility for situations.
Naoya, meanwhile, demonstrates the behaviour of a playboy. Initial scenes show he adopts a false mask of reasonability and kindness but later dialogue and actions reveal a selfishness and even a predatory approach to relationships. Pleasure and social standing come first. At the sight of responsibility, he emotionally manipulates others to get his way, gaslighting Yumi and even threatening physical violence when pushed. The revelations of bad behaviour are bone-chilling and believable.
Seeing them both exhibit immaturity provides some painful drama to watch. Even if the characters feel like archetypal middle-class students in terms of background and circumstances, at least the drama feels truthful and engaging because of the differences in approach to the situation that their genders create.
On top of Kato using the power of cinema to juggle scenes/time around, he brings some of that stage energy as takes go long and there’s a cinema verité feel to the action and the camera passively observes the performers. Stars Mai Kiryu, who was good in Lying to Mom (2018), and Kisetsu Fujiwara have solid chemistry together. She maintains sympathy throughout the film as her character goes from naïve to a new level of maturity while he demands attention as he is so convincing as a creep boyfriend you cannot help but hate him. There’s a performative long take at the end of the film where the couple have a showdown that threatens to go off the rails as Naoya hounds Yumi with his demands. When all is said and done, the film ends with a great contrapuntal scene parallel to the beginning where at least one half of the relationship we watched has grown up and it has been a rough introduction to adulthood and we are left with a bitter taste.