すとん 「Suton」
Release Date: 2024
Duration: 41 mins.
Director: Rikako Watanabe
Writer: Rikako Watanabe (Screenplay),
Starring: Chie Sakamoto, Mai Murakami, Atsushi Honma, Yujiro Hara, Miki Igarashi.
Suton is a kind of sound in Japanese that is used to describe coming to an “understanding” or “settling” something. This is the crux of Rikako Watanabe’s same-named short, a minimalist drama where lead actress Chie Sakamoto plays a woman who is coming to terms with major changes in her life and the small moments that influence her.
Sae is our main protagonist. We first see her as a high school girl in her family home. She contemplates the sight of her father’s back shaking with emotion. This is in the aftermath of her grandfather’s funeral. Perhaps this is the first time she has contemplated life, mortality, and the big issues. Whatever the case, this memory must stick with her since it recurs later on. Fast forward many years and we see her face the aftermath of more major changes and they have had an equally profound effect, it just isn’t so obvious from first glance.
When we next see her, she is a woman living alone in an out-of-the-way corner of Tokyo. It is the summer and the screen is rich with the sunshine and the sights and sounds of the season. The biggest event we see her experiencing is getting a part-job in a small suburban café. All is calm, almost stasis like as she quietly goes about her days. However, an encounter with a customer triggers an avalanche of memories from her past that reveals a woman who has suffered a string of misfortunes that rocked her world and left her existentially unsteady.
What follows is a story that is full of incident but crafted by writer/director Rikako Watanabe to be light in execution. It begins with COVID-19 foiling Sae’s hopes of acting on stage, her subsequent descent into depression and its affects on relationships. The story then tracks her gradual adjustments and acceptance of her new reality with the aid of people around her.
In terms of feeling, the film is light and warm in execution. It is down to that summertime atmosphere and also the gentle pace and the minimalistic filming style. Drama comes with little fuss and so incidents feel authentic, especially as they are drawn from real life. Sae’s relatable facticity will resonate with the audience as Covid had a heavy effect on everyone.
Episodes from Sae’s life are told in a succinct manner as the film cuts between vignettes of varying short lengths. The flashback sequences in the middle are the longest as they add context to her story as to why she needs to reset her dreams but ultimately Sae’s travails are shorn down to the barest of bones. The screenplay and timing might feel gossamer-thin but the emotional resonance from subject and conflicts builds out the world tremendously so that our hearts go out to Sae as she moves past her small everyday agonies.
The connective tissue here is a quietly moving performance by Chie Sakamoto. Her acting is unshowy and naturalistic. It proves to be constantly resonant as she cycles through a range of moods because her gentleness makes even the subtlest of changes clearly noticeable. From the high of love-induced happiness and career optimism to the low of depression, Sakamoto displays the quiet vulnerability of a clearly capable woman suddenly tripped up by life’s events and left feeling uncertain. As such, it is affecting when we see her trying to rebuild and drawing succour from whatever warmth is on offer from friends and family. That warmth is found in the performances of the supporting cast, each of whom fleshes out their characters with the right amount of energy to vividly convey the necessary human affection and connection that keeps our heroine afloat as she comes to a crossroads in life.
One of the ideas of the film is that life comes in stages and we are seeing the end of Sae’s second stage following on from her high school days. A poignant trip back to her parent’s home in Osaka introduces her to changes they are experiencing. It also reunites her with memories such as the inspiration to take up acting and thoughts she had as a teen. The sense of the passage of time is very, very poignant. Responding to this, in a superb camera move, Watanabe gifts viewers with a glimpses of Sae’s past again and it is a very moving moment that leaves space to contemplate mortality and acknowledge that life is about keeping on trying. She may have lost confidence in one stage but there is always another she can attempt and that feels invigorating and life-affirming.
If the film had ended there as a sort or circular narrative, it would have been beautifully poetic as Sae’s contemplation of what has passed seems to be nearing the moment when she can settle and move on with what remains. However, there is a coda. A scene from earlier in the film is extended as the Sae talks about how she has felt throughout the last few years. It feels a somewhat bleak but it allows Sae a chance to express herself for once after enduring so much so quietly.
Whatever the case, Suton is an impressive work from Rikako Watanabe who planned, wrote, and directed this film which was partly crowdfunded. She shows considerable control of film language to deliver an atmospheric, heartfelt, and relatable story of a person moving through changes in life. The magic that makes it come to life is from Chie Sakamoto imbues Sae with an emotionally resonant performance that lends an authenticity to the life seen on screen.
Suton played at Osaka Asian Film Festival 2024 as part of the Short Films Program C on March 02. It will play again on March 07 at Nakanoshima Museum of Art Osaka at 10:30.
You can read an interview with the director here.