MY LIFE IN THE BUSH OF GHOSTS 
Release Date: March 29th, 2024
Duration: 69 mins.
Director: Daisuke Miyazaki
Writer: N/A
Starring: Toki Miyoshi, Husen Akimoto, Kanon Kobayashi, Misaki Yatabe, Reo, Akito Imai,
Website Twitter: @MYLIFE_GHOSTS
MY LIFE IN THE BUSH OF GHOSTS is quite a title and it is hard to imagine what sort of story it contains. It turns out it isn’t one story. It is a multitude.
This film is the latest work from Daisuke Miyazaki, a director whose a youth-oriented genre-blending indie films, such as TOURISM and Videophobia, I encountered via the Osaka Asian Film Festival. Here, he presents a similar production, a science fiction coming-of-age ensemble drama made in collaboration with students from the Actors Course at The Film School of Tokyo where he is an instructor. Working with his students, he draws out an eclectic mix of around 12 narratives, some set in a far-flung future, others set in our age, all a surprise in their uniqueness and execution but hanging together perfectly.
Th fil is split into two parts:
“MY LIFE” features five sci-fi stories set at various points in the future where the Earth is in decay and humanity is fleeing to the stars. Characters either find themselves parting ways as some go off-planet or some return to Earth in some way to rediscover traces of humanity through experiencing emotions from the past.
“BUSH OF GHOSTS” features even more varied stories, nearly all of them involving a forest. The people drawn into the interior include a woman enjoying a picnic after looking for a job and a shy newly-emerged suburban cannibal who silently leaves her lover, drawn into the woods by the scent of fresh meat.
Interpretive dance, gangster action done almost entirely in sign language, a 10-minute dialogue-free glimpse of cannibalism, this medley of scenarios has different shooting methods applied. Some are eccentric, others are dry, but the end result is never dissonant as they are held together by the recurring themes of randomness and of relationships waxing and waning, all of which build through repeated visual imagery/call-backs that trigger strong emotional responses.
The simple visual motif of hands being held is stressed in one story. Another has a fixed camera pan across a bridge that two walking-talking friends are crossing while under the rays of a dusk sun. It is a beautiful sight due to the lighting and location but also contains melancholy visual symbolism of their relationship ending as they reach the other side arguing. A sense of despair is felt from low-angle shots and forbidding architecture in scenes of a THX 1138-inflected future where a character drags himself through concrete-lined halls and metal floors to a white-uniformed and emotionless woman so he can get his fix of emotions. A more playful section has a bob-about POV shot from a futuristic space girl, complete with blackouts to imitate blinking, in a scene of characters sharing ice cream from an ancient vending machine. Laughs are generated as a would-be arrogant lothario’s promises to a girl results in him recording his plight in the forest on his smartphone.
This relentless focus on relationships helps everything flow together. Further creating a feeling of connectivity is the presentation which draws from the ordinary and recognisable for the audience.
Per the budgetary limitations of this student film, the production focusses on using everyday props and places wisely to get the most effect. The repeated use of a few locations – a futuristic-looking industrial facility for the sci-fi sections, a couple of city streets, a Thai restaurant, and the forest for the “Bush” section – and recurring items and costuming drawn from the everyday – clean suits worn for radiation/the pandemic acting in place of space suits, a cracked iPhone, and a love letter talking about cherry blossoms – create a sense of familiarity and also connections between segments as they zero in on the theme of relationships.
In one sequence involving the aforementioned space girl, she finds something that calls back to characters seen earlier and there is a powerful emotional resonance built in from a previous tale to give a huge heft of poignancy as we wonder what became of those who went before.
The variety of sequences is impressive and they work together due to the singular focus on ideas. This comes from Daisuke Miyazaki corralling everything together so that the these themes build and inflect the overall tenor of the film with a somewhat elegiac emotional texture. This is never breached since the drama and comedy is generally restrained and the cast, everyone ever so perfect, give the right amount of energy so that the characters are vivid but never break the film’s atmosphere. They adjust to whatever horror or heartbreak occurs and life carries on in some way.
And as sad as some of this sounds, people often make a genuine connection with themselves amidst the drama and randomness. It feels like there is an encouragement offered to the audience to make the best of what is around.
An engrossing sequence involves a fixed camera, like in an observational documentary, showing a job seeker, wearing tan-coloured clothing, walking across a crosswalk against a wave of people wearing black and white clothes as she quits the rat race and makes her way to the forest for a picnic she shares with others. The red boardings and signage made for an interesting landscape to make her individuality stand out more. Inside her journey, and others, is the sense that one has to accept the world as it comes and cherish the relationships we get before time runs out.
My Life in the Bush of Ghosts is being screened at Shimokita Ekimae Cinema K2 @K2shimokita
You can read my interview with Daisuke Miyazaki here.