Introduction

With so many Japanese feature-length movies coming out, one would easily forget there is a very active short-film circuit in Japan. Every year, the Japanese Film Festival in Hamburg grants audiences a taste of the creativity of these short-film directors. This time, we have the honour to introduce one of Tomoichiro Setsuda’s latest works: My Wings Became My Legs.

Review

While watching a horror movie, Momoka Baba (Sae Kawakubo), Arai (Rina Kamei) and Hiromi (Nagiko Tsuji) suddenly recall the suicide attempt of Tsurumaki (Mutsumi Sato) during their college years. From then on, they start sharing different memories with each other and throwing playful remarks at each other.

My wings became my legs is an interactional comedy that does not merely highlight the difficulties subject face in adulthood, but demonstrates the fact that adulthood, as a fictional and ideal endpoint of subjectivity, can never be attained.

The truth concerning the signifier adult is echoed within the monk’s answer on the question what an adult is. While he tells the young Momoka that adults are those who know themselves, the Freudian truth shows that the subject will always remains, to a certain extent, opaque to him/herself. This opaqueness – of desire, of fantasy – is beautifully used by Setsuda to create light-hearted moments within his narrative. It is, in our view, by evoking this opaqueness at every turn within the conversational flow that Setsuda’s short attains its comical dimension.

Yet, there is also a visual comical element within his narrative. By utilizing the same actresses for different characters, like Momoka’s mother, father, and uncle, to visualize their imagination and the constructed form of their recalled memories, he adds a quirky visual touch. Yet, this light-hearted touch also echoes the ‘poisoning’ effect subjectivity has on events in the past. What we remember is, in short, always distorted by our current subjective position.  

Tomoichiro Setsuda’s composition might contain some fine dynamic moments, he does rely on static shots to tell his story. His reliance on static shots, by giving space to the cast to breathe life into their characters, enhances the framed interactions and help the light-hearted moments within the conversational flow to obtain their comical effect.

My Wings Became My Legs is a pleasant comical short that highlights that the idea of adulthood is a suffocating but unattainable ideal. Setsuda shows that rather than having to know oneself, one needs to find a desire – be it flying or running – to animate one’s own body and secure a place within the societal Other.