Girl Sparks

The film is made in a light-hearted yet very personal style. Ishii, by whom three other recent films are being screened at this festival, links in an almost matter-of-fact way everyday realism to a suddenly fantastic and absurd approach.
A schoolgirl, Saeko, looks at the sky and sees two rockets crash into each other. She looks at the event as if she’d seen it happen an infinite number of times before. Then she runs to school like an Olympic champion from Kenya. Everything is ordinary or boring. She hates the world, but that hatred also reflects boredom.
Saeko’s father has a factory where nails, nuts and bolts are made. She dreams that the rockets she sees flying include parts made in her father’s factory. Although he runs the factory with a hard hand, the father cannot save it from approaching bankruptcy. Back home, he has a very different side: he gets dressed up and puts on make-up. In this way, he tries to be a mother for Saeko, who really cherishes a hearty dislike for her father. She thinks he stinks. Yet one day she decides to save the ailing factory. She leaves her adolescent indifference behind and rolls up her sleeves.
Saeko is played infectiously by Ikawa Ayuko. Ishii clearly worked with actors who are not yet known, but Ikawa certainly has everything it takes to become a great actress. (GjZ)

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