ブルーイマジン 「Buru- Imajin」
Release Date: March 16th, 2024
Duration: 93 mins.
Director: Urara Matsubayashi
Writer: Minami Goto (Screenplay),
Starring: Mayu Yamaguchi, Asuka Kawatoko, Yui Kitamura, Yuzumi Shintani, Iana Bernardez, Hirobumi Watanabe,
Website Twitter: @blueimaginefilm IMDB
Blue Imagine is an ensemble drama that feels like a definitive summation of #MeToo issues in Japan as it looks unblinkingly at sexual violence in the Japanese film industry and addresses power and sexual harassment in wider society. In doing this, it references recent scandals while also showing a way of supporting victims in gaining justice.
It begins with a look at how sexual assault can happen. A handsome young director holding court in a crowded and noisy izakaya plays up the auteur image to aspiring actors. Aided by a garrulous producer, he lays on the alcohol, the occasional pretentious statement, and compliments that impress his listeners. He targets one listener to isolate her and, later on, sexually assault her.
After the incident, the rest of the film is the aftermath and mostly set in a refuge that goes by the name of Blue Imagine. It is located in a building containing coffee shop and apartments. It is here that victims of power and sexual harassment gather, share their stories, and support each other and it is here that the main character, Noel (Mayu Yamaguchi), the aspiring actress who was sexually assaulted by the director, learns to find her voice and speak about the trauma she endured.
Matsubayashi proceeds to use Blue Imagine as a microcosm for #MeToo issues with Noel and the characters around her become symbolic of some social failing, from Noel’s friend dealing with a sugar daddy and Filipinas facing racism, to male victims of workplace harassment. Their presence might be too brief in some cases but that is part of the film’s wider look at social issues but in operating in this way it excels at showing the breadth of issues #MeToo covers. Viewers can see other aspects, such as how the media environment works through a sceptical journalist and internet trolls who introduce victim blaming into the conversation to Noel’s sympathetic solicitor brother who lays out how the limits of the legal system and how libel laws are used to silence accusers. The film manages to take in a lot and yet it does not feel overburdened thanks to it all being streamlined and mostly in service to Noel’s story. The style the story is told in also makes things smooth.
As a drama, it is more function over form as Matsubayashi takes a considered and respectful approach to telling events. She refrains from showing the attack for rawness or sensationalism and uses gentle pacing and static cameras for quiet realism and to clearly relay information. The restrained visual style and the acting of her cast, reflects a seriousness and sincerity in addressing sexual assault and also carefully presenting a credible thesis that shows how supportive relationships help people heal as the many meetings Noel has logically leads to plot developments and new allies, factors that help her face down her attacker.
It can be said that the style of the film reflects a didacticism and its dryness risks losing a viewer, but this considered approach really does build an emotional connection between characters and the viewer as Noel’s ordeal is easy to understand. Thus, when the film culminates in a very powerful climactic scene, a sort of wish fulfilment fantasy of the director getting his comeuppance in a public forum, it really is quite affecting. Furthermore, Matsubayashi also adds subtle flourishes of theatricality for the denouement via some poetic imagery to show Noel coming to terms with her double in a moment symbolic of letting her trauma go.
That this comes from a young generation of actresses feels meaningful, as if a new generation are willing to tackle problems that have been covered up, especially after the last few years when a number of directors and cinema managers have been publicly charged with power and sexual harassment. It is gratifying to see that they are aided by some of the leading names of the indie scene such as Yuuya Matsura, Shinsuke Kato, and Hirobumi Watanabe and while each character they play may seem simply like a cypher for Matsubayashi’s ideas, there are the occasional subtle allusions to real-life figures through sartorial choices that brings some fire to proceedings.
Thus, by the end of this careful and comprehensive story, the film feels like a definitive summation on #MeToo in Japan and none of this feels cynical or exploitative. Urara Matsubayashi has risen from being an actress (The Hungry Lion) to producer (Kamata Prelude, Saga Saga) to this film where she is director. Each of her works has a #MeToo theme and this is the most explicit and thorough examination of it yet. It tackles sexual assault and predatory directors in the Japanese film industry and also shows why solidarity with victims, and showing kindness and understanding, is important.
One of the points of the #MeToo movement was to further the conversation on , make it more public and make it easier for other victims to speak out, to realise that they should not feel shame or guilt. Blue Imagine furthers that conversation and that is where the value of the film lies.
Blue Imagine has been screened at the Rotterdam International Film Festival, Osaka Asian Film Festival (where it won a Japan Cuts award special mention), and went on general release on March 16th. It is now playing at Japan Cuts on March 20th, 15:00. It pairs up well with Performing KAORU’s Funeral and All the Long Nights in theme on the troubles women face in the workplace and idealised supportive solutions.