レイニー ブルー 「Reini- buru-」
Release Date: 2025
Duration: 120 mins.
Director: Asuna Yanagi
Writer: Asuna Yanagi (Screenplay),
Starring: Asuna Yanagi, Runa Nakashima, Hirobumi Watanabe, Kengo Kora, Kenzo Ryu, Ami Chong, Mayu Ozawa, Misa Tsugawa,
Website Twitter: @rainyblue_movie
Asuna Yanagi wrote, directed and starred in her directorial debut film Rainy Blue while still in high school. Up until this point, she’d been a teen actor who had supporting roles in front of the camera, most notably in Hirobumi Watanabe’s desert-dry acerbic comedies A Way of Life (2022) and Techno Brothers (2023). For her first film she has created an oddball coming-of-age tale based on her own experiences.
In the spirit of the adage “write what you know,” she portrays Aoi, a 17-year-old girl who suffers a severe case of cinephilia who dedicates her time to writing a screenplay.
The extent of Aoi’s movie mania is exaggerated here for comic effect as her June-time days are spent gorging on cinema at a mini-theatre, dreaming up silver screen scenarios, and stalking friends, classmates, and more for material while being the sole member of her school’s film club, uh, I mean film society – this is an important distinction she insists on throughout the movie. This is hitched to a rather gently-paced dramatic story of her search for a direction in life in the face of losing her mother and unhappy relations with her father who responds with frustration over having a daughter bitten by the cinema bug.
The film itself has the feel of a shaggy dog story, loosely plotted as it is around various vignettes of meta-movie comedy, depictions of artistic creativity, self-doubt, and parental problems for two hours.
Most of the adults in this film tend to be well-meaning but ineffectual but the story and direction are from the perspective of a teen and true to the conflicted feelings of sensitivity, dreams, and anxiety that are a part of their inner lives as they figure out what they truly want to do in their future. At times, I felt a desire for a more structured screenplay as summertime scenes of silliness and sadness slipped by somewhat unevenly but wayward pacing created a feeling akin to what I remember being the experience of adolescence, that it was an undisciplined time of life with so many stimuli, highs and lows, and the future was so far off that it was hard to imagine a concrete path forward.
On top of achieving this authentic feeling of adolescence, Yanagi crafts a charming filmmaker in Aoi.
Movies as a path to maturity aren’t anything new but Aoi’s cinephilia feels real as it goes beyond just namechecking Vittorio de Sica and forms a crucial part of how she interacts with the world, her unabashed enjoyment for what she watches, her efforts to become a writer of worth, and also how she projects cinema on to real life. This made identifying with her easy for me but just seeing the passion brought to creative arts was moving.
Yanagi also has a trump card to differentiate Rainy Blue from other coming-of-age films in that she steeps her work in the atmosphere of her home town of Tamana city, Kumamoto Prefecture. This is the birthplace Yasujiro Ozu’s favourite leading man Chisu Ryu, and it’s a screening of Tokyo Story (1953) that sets off Aoi’s film addiction. Her worship of him and cinema comes out in set dressing (posters) and strange dream sequences in which she cleans at a shrine he has a connection with, a canny allusion to Aoi’s struggle of neophyte filmmaker in the presence of a master.
What really impressed me was that Yanagi has a fantastic eye for framing scenes. She takes advantage of Tamana’s environment for beautiful backdrops. I often found myself dazzled by the quieter moments. A simple scene of watching her sitting and staring out at the sea as she contemplates where to take her life next made me feel relaxed and contemplative and as the vast vista of shoreline stretched out in the distance. Another shot I loved was her following a friend during a light shower. As they walk next to a lake, there are ripples on the water, the reflection of clouds and the reflection of the two girls passing. It made for an absorbing composition. I also got a sense for Tamana as a place as Yanagi’s incorporation of locations and some customs and funny characters show that she brims with pride for her hometown.
Asuna Yanagi is a good performer and is able to navigate drama well but it is comedy with which she holds attention. She has a cheeky grin and confident physicality that makes her a fun rambunctious screen presence. She also has the help of actors also from Kumamo like Kengo Kora and Mayu Ozawa and even Chisu Ryu’s grandson Kenzo.
A crucial player, however, is Tochigi Prefecture’s Hirobumi Watanabe (whom I have met and have an autograph from!). He has multiple roles in the film and his presence is often for slapstick effect. The funniest moment from him is as a pretentious film director with Akira Kurosawa-like hat and glasses who goes on a tirade about how inspirational film can be – that you can be in the grip of despair and a film can shine a light to reveal a path forward in life. This speech, comedic as it is, rang true and proved Yanagi’s cinema cred beyond the well-directed and frequently beautiful scenes. She gets that film can change life and Rainy Blue conveys how while working with the wonderful atmosphere of Kumamoto.
Rainy Blue was screened on Monday, March 17, at Theatre Umeda Cinema 4. It will be screened again on Wednesday, March 19, at 18:20 at Theatre Umeda Cinema 4.