Rei

The title of Tanaka Toshihiko’s ambitious exploration of human relationships is polysemous. A genderless given name, the kanji character can similarly represent a variety of meanings. As such, it’s the perfect symbol for this portrait of early thirtysomething company employee Matsushita Hikari. Her life is stable and seemingly without worry, unlike many of those around her. But it’s through their struggles that they find their counterparts in life – the balance in relationships that steadies them. Hikari lacks this ballast and this begins to worry her. However, on a trip into the mountains of Hokkaido she encounters a Deaf landscape photographer, Masato. Through him Hikari embarks on a journey that will transform her sense of being and connectedness with the world.

Working with a cast and crew of mostly non-professionals and students, Tanaka’s impressive directorial debut (he also produced, edited and acted in it) unfurls at a measured pace, the drama’s tempo perfectly attuned to the shifts in Hikari’s worldview. By contrasting the exquisite beauty of the Hokkaido landscape with often raw emotions of his characters, the film successfully mines our feelings towards loneliness, dependency and the feelings that bind us together or tear us apart.

– Vanja Kaludjercic