As the speaking being can only create a signified by handling or producing signifiers in relation to the Other, it is not surprising that most narratives focus on the subjective effect of an encounter. Cinema is, in essence, a celebration of the encounter.

Masaru Sano’s Perfect・Nervous is a pure example of the cinema of the encounter. The narrative starts when Ayaka Mogami (Minori Fujidera), who is suffering from arteriosclerosis, attempts to commit suicide by hanging. Yet, her weight causes the branch she knotted her blanket on to break. Yoshino (Akari Takaishi), who just happens to pass by, invites her to follow her to the nearby Sanatorium.

The encounter between Ayaka and Yoshino is structured by two central moments of enunciation. The first enunciation concerns the suicidal dynamic. Sano frames the push to commit suicide as an attempt to escape one’s fear of the future and avoid the infliction of a seemingly insurmountable imaginary injury. In this way, one can grasp that Ayaka’s decision to take her life is caused by her fear of having her legs amputated and the consequences this physical lack will have on her life and her ego.  

The second enunciation is Yoshino’s statement that, in contrast to plants and trees, animals need other animals to (get the nutrients to) survive. Yoshino’s signifiers formulate, albeit somewhat indirectly, a profound truth concerning the speaking being. For the human subject, the other/Other is necessary to survive. While the baby’s first interactions with the maternal and paternal Other centre around nutrients, he is, at the same time, forced into the field of parental language and culture. He cannot but embark on the path of socialisation and become, if neurotically structured, a subject of desire – desire is eros, desire is life.  

The composition of Perfect・Nervous fluidly combines slow dynamic and static shots. Sano’s visual fabric beautifully emphasizes the elegance of trees and the complex patters their branches and leaves make. This visual emphasis allows Sano to contrast the stillness of nature with the dynamism of the encounter and the subjective effect of the signifier.  

Sano relies on a quite darkish lighting-design to bring his narrative alive. This choice does not merely give the short film’s atmosphere a forlorn stain, but helps echoing Ayaka’s subjective depressed state (Music-note 1, Lightning-note 1). The elegant play with colour-schemes, on the other hand, gives the space where our characters wander in a subtle otherworldly quality.

Perfect・Nervous is an exquisitely crafted narrative that touchingly shows that a simple encounter, a simple exchange of signifiers, can turn a wish to die into a desire to life. Highly recommended.

Notes

Music-note 1: The forlorn feeling that lingers within the narrative is also supported by the musical accompaniment.

Lighting-note 1: It is thus not surprising that the encounter affects the darkish lightning-design.