Silence Speaks Volumes in Shingo Matsumura's New Film

Shingo Matsumura's film "Between Us" offers a quiet exploration of lingering emotional wounds, presented in the Tokyo International Film Festival's Nippon Cinema Now section. The narrative follows Makoto and Kasumi, childhood friends separated by an incident during a family camping trip. They reconnect six years later within their high school drama club, navigating their shared past through unspoken feelings.

Matsumura intentionally employs very still camerawork, avoiding handheld shots to create a distinct visual experience for the big screen. This deliberate pace aims to truthfully capture actors' emotions and the subtle nuances of distance between characters. The director emphasizes using actors' eyes and the spatial arrangements within scenes to convey their awareness of each other despite physical separation.

The drama club setting becomes a space for catharsis. Kasumi's intense dedication causes friction, but Makoto's arrival and their subsequent scenes, edited to appear as if they are trading lines, symbolize their growing closeness. The script itself, which gives the film its title, acts as a catalyst for mending their relationship, allowing them to articulate unspoken feelings through performance.

Inspiration for "Between Us" stems from a series of global disasters, including the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and subsequent global events like the pandemic and ongoing wars. Matsumura sought to explore human connection in challenging times, focusing on two individuals looking at each other to generate energy. He notes that while the story isn't literally about these events, it reflects how past traumas and societal issues remain unresolved, often fading from public attention yet persisting in reality.

Matsumura allowed his lead actresses significant freedom, trusting their natural ability to empathize and absorb each other's performances. This approach, combined with his precise visual style, results in a striking film. He observes that contemporary Japanese cinema lacks a singular mainstream, characterized instead by limited budgets that encourage diverse, focused storytelling on smaller subjects.

Reflecting on his own career, Matsumura is at a juncture, considering whether to pursue purely artistic expression or create films more geared towards a wider audience. He acknowledges the diverse landscape of Japanese filmmaking, where each director pursues different thematic goals within their creative reach.