Introduction

Many directors start off as assistant directors. The flame of creation is often lit by perceiving how others successfully realize their creative vision. Keitaro Sakon is no different. Learning the ins and outs of creating a film on the set of Takuya Fukushima’s Modern Love (2018) and Ryûtarô Nakagawa’s Mio On the Shore (2019), Sakon now sets out to deliver his own narrative.

Review

Haruka Kumano (Kokoro Morita), a counselling service manager, has earned praise with her mental health subscription service to prevent the development of symptoms of mental illness. Yet, one day, Ando (Shinsuke Kato), her boss, confronts her with the claim of power harassment he has received. While she tries to defend herself – telling him that she merely gave him instructions as his customer satisfaction was low, Ando ignores her defence and asks her to either change her behaviour or quit to protect the company.   

Around the same time, Haruka learns that her mother has died. After the funeral, she promptly proposes her siblings to sell the parental house and the ailing business. While her three siblings are against selling, Haruka is dead set on forcing the sale and use some of the money to fund her own business together with Kentaro (Kazunori Mimura).  

Lonely Glory explores the relational impact of a subject’s selfish logic as well as the mendacious nature of a subject’s benevolence. This contrast, which plays out in the field between the subject and the other, is evident in the way Haruka treats the other. Despite thinking out a highly successful counselling subscription service to help people deal with the treacherous paths of the social bond and the societal field, her cold and calculating attitude towards her co-workers and her family members swiftly erases the other’s subjectivity. Haruka is so focused on maximizing profitability and efficiency – she is a product of the capitalistic discourse and the demand to calculate risks, profit, … etc. – that she blinds herself for the other subject’s suffering. Another effect of Haruka’s contradictory stance is that she merely perceives the other’s wishes when she can exploit them to force the realization of her own desire.    

Whether what Haruka says rings true or not is initially not that important. It is the way she directs her signifiers to the other that leaves the other no other option than to evacuate his subject, either by remaining silent or by biting back with a violent verbal refusal. Yet, while her selfish calculating stance plants the seed for conflict, it is also true that she, due to her style of verbal confrontation, succeeds in forcing the other subject to overcome some of his inhibitions and pursue his unlocked desire. Without Haruka’s intervention, her older brother Keisuke (Yoshihiro Kumano) would never truly try to commit to his relationship with the young farmer’s daughter Asuka (Haruna Hori). And it is by introducing a part-time job that fits the logic of her younger job-less brother (Haya Nakazaki), that he is able to give his life some sense and direction.  

Yet, how will Haruka try to ‘help’ her divorced sister Miwako (Eriko Nakamura)? How can she loosen her reliance on the family business so that she can sell the house? Maybe the solution lies in supporting the frail romantic bond between her and Tsukasa Miyamoto (Yuya Matsuura), the owner of a second hand store.

As the narrative unfolds, we learn that what drives Haruka is a need for success. Yet, for Haruka, success does not mean acquiring wealth or maximizing profits but being recognized by the Other as being right. The myriad of Haruka’s calculated interventions and confrontations are mere tactical movements to acquire the Other’s recognition, the Other’s love. Yet, who is the (m)Other that can give what she desires? And can she realize how her search for recognition is complicating the bonds with those who are nearest to her?

The composition of Lonely Glory heavily relies on fluid spatial dynamism to tell its story. Yet, a myriad of static moments can also be spotted within the composition. These static moments, by beautifully utilizing the geometrical dimension, succeed in littering the visual fabric with pleasant and satisfying shot-compositions.

The subtle shaky framing that lingers throughout the composition adds a layer of realism to the performances and, as a result, makes the narrative more believable and easier to get invested in. One could, in fact, say that the tremble, by echoing the documentary style, trembles realism into the interactions – the signifiers that are expressed and the facial expressions that are exchanged. 

Lonely Glory is an impressive debut feature by Keitaro Sakon. By being able to rely on a talented cast and by crafting a composition that accommodates the performances, he succeeds in infusing his narrative about selfish benevolence with a rough emotional naturalness that engages and affects the spectator.