Slight but Lovely Japanese Figure Skating Drama

In Hiroshi Okuyama’s My Sunshine, three souls discover solace and poignant moments of self-discovery in determine skating. The movie chronicles a season of the game in a small city on a Japanese island, the sort of place whose melting snow and altering leaves encourage poetic musings. Guided by the fantastic thing about the panorama and the nostalgia of childhood, Okuyama constructs a quiet narrative buoyed by an understated allure. 

The movie opens with indicators of a brand new season. Throughout a baseball sport, Takuya (Keitatsu Koshiyama), a sheepish boy with minor speech troubles, turns into mesmerized by snowflakes fluttering to the bottom. Whereas his teammates steal bases, he cranes his neck, angling for a greater view of the crystals. Scenes of snow blanketing the city in Hokkaido, the Japanese island the place Okuyama (Jesus) filmed My Sunshine, observe. These pictures — of powdery mountain peaks and quiet streets flanked by snow — possess the haunting temper and delicate detailing of Stephen Shore pictures. The mellow, virtually ethereal, authentic music by Ryosei Sato, one half of the Japanese people duo Humbert Humbert, provides a storybook high quality to those establishing photographs.

Okuyama, who’s the director, screenwriter and cinematographer, fills My Sunshine with this sort of elegant imagery, all of which contributes to the virtually fantastical temper of his story. The movie, with its hazy aesthetic and languorous pacing, operates like a reminiscence. 

Climate adjustments usher in a brand new season of sports activities. The following time we see Takuya, he’s half-heartedly taking part in an ice hockey sport. When his teammates retreat to their lockers, he locks his gaze on a slender determine dancing on the ice. The woman, Sakura (Kiara Takanashi), is a rising star being educated by Arakawa (Sôsuke Ikematsu), a former expertise who deserted his skates and Tokyo for this small island. The explanations behind his retirement are murky and current one of many few areas the place Okuyama’s need to take care of the temper of a reminiscence proves a downside. (One other is with Sakura, whose energy as a personality falters as soon as Takuya turns into a skater.)

It’s Arakawa who notices Takuya watching Sakura, and takes it upon himself to introduce the younger boy to the game. They begin with brief classes after hockey follow, evenings throughout which Takuya learns how you can skate with extra ease and precision. As Takuya turns into extra expert, Arakawa encourages Sakura and Takuya to staff up and compete as a pair in ice dancing competitions. Sakura initially rebuffs the concept. She is quiet however extreme in her pursuit of skating success. However she finally warms to the chance, particularly as her angle towards Takuya transitions from annoyance to curiosity after which an endearing affection.

Okuyama delicately threads the connection between these three souls by refined shifts in perspective, making a parallel emotional narrative. We’re all the time watching one in every of them watching the opposite watch the opposite. Within the trio’s first encounter, Takuya’s view of Sakura focuses on the grace of her actions; time appears to sluggish as he stares with a little bit of marvel and envy. Arakawa’s perspective follows quickly after. Within the teacher’s gaze, we decide up pleasure and a flash of recognition. When Arakawa loans Takuya his outdated skates, the gesture confirms what My Sunshine has already prompt: that the teacher sees himself within the youthful boy, whose enthusiasm for skating is a distinction to Sakura’s depth.

Because the winter progresses, the connection between the three adjustments, and Okuyama captures the subtly shifting dynamics with the fluidity of a dance sequence. Due to the movie’s virtually dreamy visible language, it takes a second to register the narrative’s dramatic flip. Earlier than we will course of what is occurring, the fissures between Sakura, Takuya and Arakawa widen, changing into unbridgeable chasms. 

My Sunshine is slender, its pressure residing in Okuyama’s compositions and the performances he pulls from the actors. Relating to story, although, My Sunshine typically stumbles as an alternative of glides. As a result of Okuyama constructs the movie like a reminiscence, some elision and obliqueness are to be anticipated. However there are moments — particularly revolving round Sakura and the drama that instigates the tip of the three characters’ relationship — when Okuyama leans too arduous on suggestion. Extra consideration to deepening the narrative wouldn’t have disrupted the rigorously constructed temper. In actual fact, it might need helped. As a result of whereas My Sunshine bathes us within the heat glow of nostalgia, its characters typically appear to be prone to being forgotten.