Introduction

That the time of social distancing under the covid-19 pandemic can also be an excellent moment to be creative was already underlined by Shinichiro Ueda and his remotely shot One Cut of The Dead mission: Remote (2020). Another director who took it upon herself to unleash her creativity is none other than Kasumi Hiraoka, known from her short-film Red-light District Graffiti (2008).

Review

STAY HOME -RUNWAY 1- for mom (1:49)

For Mom is best understood as a musical visual constellation – a composition playing with music and imagery. Given the short runtime, Hiraoka does, in no way, not attempt to try to tell a narrative. Her short-film aims to frame an impression, an impression of the mother-daughter bond as marked by the societal advice to stay home – “not in a hurry”. Hiraoka frames her visual impression in a fluid and dynamic way and gives, by playing with pastel-like colours, her composition a soft and pleasing aesthetic.

STAY HOME -RUNWAY 2- in training (1:52)

While the mother-daughter bond still forms the basis of Hiraoka’s second short-movie, In Training is – even more than For Mom – a visual experiment. This visual experiment shares the same pleasing visual style as Hiraoka’s first short, but what it experiments with differs.  While For Mom played with intertwining music and imagery, In Training plays with the poetic dimension of visual repetition.

STAY HOME -RUNWAY 3- for dancing　(1:19)

For Dancing, devoid of any reference to the mother-daughter bond, is another visual experiment. The fact that dance, a dance by Hiraoka herself, is the focus is sensible in the composition as such. While the composition still focuses on visual repetition, this short distinguishes itself by using jump-cuts and having a faster paced shot-concatenation. For Dance is, like the two other shorts, colourful and visually pleasing, but does not feature the same pastel-like colours.

STAY HOME -RUNWAY 4- for friend (0:54)

Hirako’s final short marks a return to framing an impression. This time, the impression concerns the impact of the social distancing on friendship, “I miss you”. For Friend, framed in an extremely pleasing fluid way, is less concerned with poetic repetition but features a compositional symmetry as a whole.