YUKO NAKAMURA, AN OGAWA, AND HIDEKAZU MASHIMA IN FOLLOWING THE SOUND KIYOSHI SUGITA: FOLLOWING THE SOUND 92023) JAPAN CUTS 2024 Emotional encounters of three people Matthew Joseph Jenner reports in
International Cinephile Society: "The film focuses on a trio of characters, each distinct from one another, being drawn together by chance. Whether nurturing a new relationship between them or revisiting the past when they previously encountered one another (in one of the most emotionally resonant moments in the film), we see the deep connections that bind these people together." James Hadfield's review in
The Japan Times. comments: "This obliqueness is both a strength and weakness for
Following the Sound. Even compared to his previous work, Sugita leaves things wide open to interpretation here — and I have to confess that the film didn’t draw me in to the same extent as
Haruhara-san’s Recorder. However, there’s no denying the emotional charge of the final scene. Just let me get back to you about what the heck it means."
Evidently, this film relates closely to Sugita's previous one, and refers to grieving. Haru (An Ogawa) has lost her mother (though as an adolescent), and still goes around with a little cassette player listening to tapes her mother made. Haru who has a pale, round, open face, approaches Yukiko (Yuko Namamura), asking her for help in directions to a cafe. Yukiko helps, but the cafe is closed. So Yukiko invites Haru to her house for lunch. If this were a film by Korean NYFF favorite Hong Sang-soo, there would be a lot of conversation. But with Sugita, people don't talk much. Sometimes the meaning is in everyday actions performed wordlessly. Preparing an omelette and eating an omelette may be all you get. What else is going on, as the
Japan Times reviewer James Hadfield points out, is only hinted at, and Sugita is "awfully coy" about what the exact details are. But the emotional charge is there, and the overtone is of loss and grief.
Without a lot of conversation, Haru and Yukiko nonetheless clearly bond, and they go on a motorcycle trip to find a place, the sound of a stream or river, recorded by Haru's mother. The journey would seem to be for Haru's benefit, but Yukiko says "No, I’m being helped by you." Haru is a forerunner in grief, and now a teacher.
Haru also seems to be following a middle-aged man around, Tsuyoshi (Hidekazu Mashima). He responds by coming to the bookstore where Haru works, and the two of them go to a cafe where she acknowledges that they have met before. Tsoyoshi seems shocked by this reminder because of how they met. The plot summary will tell you: she stopped Tsoyoshi from jumping in front of a train. Meanwhile Haru and her friends, as Hadfield puts it, "dabble in rudimentary filmmaking," shooting little ordinary scenes with small video cameras. And Haru is in an art workshop for this, and also at one point a figure drawing class, where an older woman accuses her of staring at her instead of the model. There is also a project to make up a little play with ordinary events and speeches, which the characters see successfully performed, which they celebrate with a beer.
Eventually Haru, Yukiko and Tsuyushi wind up together. But this not the kind of film where conventional plot developments matter so much as the emotions, and the emotions are strong and evident from the start. It is an interesting watch, and Sugita is a filmmaker of evident sensitivity who plays by his own rules which we may still be figuring out. I feel more comfortable, and more rewarded, by the way Hong Sang-soo uses cafes than the way they are used here, but
Following the Sound may reveal new layers on repeated viewings. Kiyoshi Sugita was an assistant director for Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Shinji Aoyama, Nobuhiro Suwa and others. This is his fourth feature.
Following the Sound,m 88 mins., debuted in Giornate degli Autori at Venice Sept. 2023. Screened for this review as part of the 2024 Japan Cuts (Jul. 10-21).
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