よそ者の会 「Yosomono no kai」
Release Date: 2025
Duration: 68 mins.
Director: Hami Nishizaki
Writer: Hami Nishizaki (Screenplay),
Starring: Shuichi Kawanobe, Ayane Sakamoto, Kotaro Higa, Manaka Osawa, Shiho Nakazawa, Keitaro Kobayashi,
The Outsiders’ Club is a title that is amusing and quite sad in the image it conjures up of a last chance saloon for people too uncool for school. Writer/director Hami Nishizaki’s film, however, ditches the fun part and takes on the serious issue of alienation.
Her inspiration for her story comes from attending university during the pandemic and the atomising influence the lockdowns and dispersed student body had on social relations. That and she wanted to put her feelings about the difficulty in communicating in an authentic way in a world where perceptions can vary wildly. She captures this in her medium-length work where her shooting style and her cast’s performance of people wearing false masks deliver a disconcerting depiction of isolation and misconceptions.
The Outsiders’ Club refers to a meeting place for those who feel unrecognised, alienated, or who struggle to belong. The person joining the club, one summer break, is Makio Suzuki (Shuichi Kawanobe) and this story of misconceptions starts with him.
Suzuki is quiet cleaner at the prestigious university this club is based at. You wouldn’t credit it but we learn after he bumps into a former classmate that this even-tempered man once attended the university as a student. Upon first contact with the club, it seems that he perceives a pity party for misanthropic people too petty and self-important to play nice with others and so he leaves but there’s something even more off about him than the mean club participants.
Kawanobe (a director in his own right – Our House Party (2022, interview) captures a sluggish emotional and physical state that suggests depression. His slow drawl speaks of exhaustion and his eyes radiate tiredness and a little ambivalence that is unnerving.
When he is accused of sexual harassment, the audience, having spent time with Suzuki, can tell it’s a misconception on the part of the complainant but this sets in motion Suzuki’s return to the club where the leader, a seemingly ordinary young woman named Kinuko (Ayane Sakamoto), learns that the tight-lipped man is not so much a sexual predator but has long had destructive thoughts boiling away that may soon come to an explosive conclusion. It turns out, however, that Kinuko isn’t as innocent as Suzuki first thought…
Here, Ayane Sakamoto proves to be a great foil by flashing enigmatic looks and speaking softly before baring her teeth when her character shows a deeper sense of dislocation than Suzuki. Her fieriness breaks through his apathy and seeing him switch gears thanks to her finally establishes a point of pathos for viewers.
Beyond the distinct physical acting, the themes of alienation are made explicit in dialogue. The gradual reveals are shot in rather slow-moving and talky conversations where the characters emphasise their feeling of being disjointed from the world around them and frustrated by gaps in understanding with others and themselves and the university becomes the focal point of their connective communication complexes. Crucially, here, the actors displays of unnerving inauthenticity is heightened by Nishizaki’s severe filming style turns the location and its summer setting into a source of upset for viewers. This helps the film really get under the skin as ideas about perception and misconceptions play out.
Nishizaki harnesses the atmosphere of busy public space of a university emptied out over a holiday to generate a feeling of unease in the audience due to the absence of people. She uses an almost verité style, a fixed camera (with the odd pan) to capture the quiet and empty corridors. Just being in these liminal spaces creates a feeling of dislocation and unwelcoming feeling that might capture what these characters who feel like outsiders may feel.
When we get a glimpse of Suzuki’s domestic space, the lack of decoration is as equally off-putting as it speaks to a lack of an outlet for his emotions. Meanwhile, the summer setting creates a close and heavy atmosphere perfect to convey the frustrated feeling of being trapped. The way Nishizaki shoots the grey, plain, and low-lit interiors with the harsh sunlight from outside cutting in makes for even more uninviting locations.
This minimalist style is fantastic in catching the subdued acting of Shuichi Kawanobe and Ayane Sakamoto as they take their characters through a quiet storm of mental change. In a nice touch, the red dress Kinuko wears stands out in lecture theatres and amidst dull urban architecture and there was one moment that is reminiscent of Kiyoshi Kurosawa (like the ghosts who wear red dresses in his film) in how Nishizaki uses the summer light to cast the reflection of ripping water cast upon the backgrounds of a shelter that Makio and Kinuko share when they contemplate life while looking at a water feature. The ripples are suggestive of emotional turmoil inside.
Both Suzuki’s destructive plan and Kinuko’s secrets are plot points that lead the film deeper into an examination of alienation and the setting and Hami Nishizaki’s depiction of their world really captures this feeling.
There’s the saying, a problem shared is a problem halved, and the film kind of hints at this but refuses to commit to any trite endings because feelings of belonging require constant effort. Now that Suzuki and Kinuko have gotten to know each other, they have the opportunity to look past the despair that lies in their hearts but they will have to work to keep it from taking root again so while it is possible to be hopeful for Suzuki and Kinuko, the film still leaves moments of doubt.
The Outsiders Club was screened on March 15, at Theatre Umeda Cinema 4. It will be screened again at 10:20 on Sunday, March 23, at Theatre Umeda Cinema 4.