Sawako Decides

SAWAKO DECIDES (CINEMA)
Third Window 

Release date: July 8th 2011
Certificate (UK): 15
Running time: 112

Country of origin: Japan
Original language: Japanese with English subtitles

Writer and director: Yûya Ishii

Cast: Hikari Mitsushima, Kotaro Shiga, Ryô Iwamatsu, Kira Aihara, Masashi Endô, Tomiko Kudô, Natsumi Suzuki, Kurt Chiba, Nawo Uchiyama, Yumi Hirose, Emi Makino, Yoshiko Yoshino

Some people are just not very assertive and usually it’s not something they can help. Try as they might not to let life and people around them beat them down, they always end up back at square one.

What I hate is when they continue to complain about their circumstances but fail to see they’re a victim of themselves rather than external forces. “I’ve no other choice”, but there is always a choice.

Sawako Decides is a Japanese film directed by Yûya Ishii and is the story of a young woman, Sawako (Hikari Mitsushima) who decides to change her life through sheer willpower and not become one of those complaining victims. The film tells of her journey as she overcomes herself in this struggle.

After running away from home to live in Tokyo, Sawako finds herself five year later stuck in dead-end job where her dreams fail to materialise into reality. Distressed about her situation and realising that it’s not her jobs or her boyfriends that need to change but her, Sawako uses the circumstances of her father falling ill to return home and sort herself out.

Unfortunately, her boyfriend, Kenichi (Endo Masashi), who also happens to be her boss, decides to come along as well, with his small daughter and together they cause her more problems than they try to solve. It’s disheartening to watch Sawako fail so miserably at the idea of “Carpe diem”, instead of being a commanding force in her own life she resolves to just let things be, accepting there are no other choices. This invites others to take advantage, bully and berate her constantly for her mistakes, shortcomings and the choices she made earlier in her life.

Ishii employs a quirky narrative to show Sawako’s bleak outlook on life and how she is at odds with everything around her. From the opening scenes we see the monotony of her daily existence and how she allows others to address her, almost welcoming their disrespect and hostility towards her. At her core, Sawako is a woman who clearly lacks self esteem and Mitsushima plays her with impeccable restraint and a quietness that at times is painful to watch because of the atmosphere she is able to bring with her performance.

Sawako Decides is a film very much like its protagonist in that it takes its time to decide where it’s going. And, like Sawako who fights to find her inner voice, by its end what we learn is that not everything is set in stone. People and things can change, if you want them to and Ishii brings that wonderfully to the screen with this story.

Patrick Samuel

The founder of Static Mass Emporium and one of its Editors in Chief is a composer and music producer with a philosophy degree. Static Mass is where he lives his passion for film and writing about it. A fan of film classics, documentaries and World Cinema, Patrick prefers films with an impeccable way of storytelling that reflect on the human condition.

You can find his music on Soundcloud .

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