Yazaki Hitoshi was once an avatar of the 1990s Japanese New Wave. March Comes In Like A Lion (Sangatsu no Lion, 1992), his lyrical, elliptical drama about incest, was screened at dozens of festivals around the world.
After this triumph, however, Yazaki dropped out of sight, reappearing briefly in 2000 with the little-seen The Girl Who Picks Flowers And The Girl Who Kills Insects (Hana o Tsumu Shojo to Mushi o Korosu Shojo). Now, however, he is back with Strawberry Shortcakes, a romantic drama based on a popular manga, with a name cast headed by Ikewaki Chizuru, Nakamura Yuko, Kase Ryo and Ando Masanobu.
The film, however, is less a commercial sell-out than a shading toward more digestible, if not always sweet, entertainment. Yazaki is still Yazaki, defiantly indie in sensibility and style.
The film tells parallel stories about two pairs of young women. The first we meet is Satoko (Ikewaki), who, after being dumped by her rocker boyfriend, is working as a receptionist at a deriheru (delivery health) - meaning she answers the phone from customers wanting call girls. Back in her apartment, she swigs beer and prays to a small, black stone that fell from the sky and is now her resident “god”.
At work, Satoko becomes friends with Akiyo (Nakamura), who is older, quieter and more aggressive than the other girls. She is saving to buy a condo on the fifth floor so that, when she starts to go senile, she can jump out the window and kill herself quickly and efficiently. Her one escape is her drinking sessions with Kikuchi (Ando), a former classmate who knows that beneath Akiyo's buddy-buddy exterior beats the heart of a woman madly in love. Unfortunately, he cannot reciprocate.
Also lonesome is Toko (Iwase Toko), an illustrator whose ex is about to marry, while she sinks into a miasma of bitterness and bulimia - and draws “the face of God” for a book cover.
Her roommate is Chihiro (Nakagoshi Noriko), a sweet-tempered office clerk who is into shopping, makeup, fortunetelling and her self-absorbed boyfriend Nagai (Kase).
She desperately wants a normal married life and worships the boyfriend as her “god”, the poor thing.
This may sound like a long, dreary wallow in feminine self-delusion and depression, but Yazaki's four heroines are all struggling toward self-awareness and their various versions of the light. The film is really less about the search for love than finding the courage to live in one's own skin without the usual neurotic or religious crutches, but with a like-minded soul or two.
Working from Inukai Kyoko’s script, Yazaki depicts this journey through the small incidents and rituals of everyday life - though he doesn't shy from the occasional big flare-up or flake out.
Even the humble stuff of the heroines’ rooms expresses their personalities, and dreams. Toko displays her art proudly on the walls, but hides her feelings. Chihiro pours out her feelings in her diary, while keeping her decorative urges under wraps.
This is hardly a new strategy for adding color and depth, but Yazaki uses it with unusual thoroughness, to extraordinary effect. When the title treats finally show up, they pack more than the usual meaning because the film has been preparing for their appearance from scene one. Dig in, enjoy - and let’s hope we don’t have to wait another 14 years for a second helping.