Most Japanese romance narratives seek to idealize the encounter between seishun (youth) and romance, a nostalgic harking back to the non-existing moment where The sexual relationship seemed writable. However, Nobohiro Doi aims to explore the field of romance in a different light by adapting Kasumi Asakaru’s Yamamoto Shugoro Prize-winning novel Hiraba no Tsuki (2018). He offers us an exploration of how romance functions within a space where the subject, plagued by voids of sorrowful meaninglessness, fully grasps that The sexual relationship is but a fata morgana.

Doi inaugurates Moon in The Ordinary by introducing the spectator to Kensho Aoto (Masato Sakai), a divorced man working at Seiko Printing’s Asaka factory. One night, arriving home, he is greeted by his son Kensuke (Yuki Kura). He has come by to ask his father to fulfill his promise and co-sign the contract for a condo – he is moving in with a girl, and tells him, in passing, that his mother, Aoto’s ex-wife, is thinking of re-marrying.

The date his father circled on his calendar – the 20th of December – piques Kensuke’s interest, yet Aoto brushes his questions off, refusing to tell him that the date has everything to do with his old classmate Yoko Sudo (Haruka Igawa), whom he, by mere chance, met two years at the hospital’s convenience store. 

Moon In The Ordinary offers the spectator a well-structured ‘circular’ narrative that is not merely conversational, but puts the emphasis on the signifier and the gap between what is said and what remains unsaid (Structure-note 1). Nobohiro Doi does not only touches upon the way subjects ‘use’ the other as a sounding-board to re-narrativize and re-evaluate their relational past and explore the subjective impact – and its affective consequences – of the experiential fact that The sexual relationship cannot be written. Or to put it differently, we welcome the other in our midst to produce meaning that supports the image (ego) we want to present to this other and arouse some meaning for the life we have lived, the one we are living, and the one we want to live.    

However, to be able to thematically explore this search for pacifying meaning, Doi must first signal that pushes the subject to such meaning-production: a gnawing meaningless emptiness. Yoko Sudo, by proposing to Aoto to create a support-system and be each-other’s ‘hype squad’, does not merely confront him with the subjective emptiness that speaks through his signifiers, but also signals the more general fact that the middle-aged subject, due to the disruptive impact of certain life-events – e.g. a divorce, becoming widowed, children leaving the house – ends up becoming a beach-like site plagued by waves of indeterminate meaninglessness – the ebb and flow of the mid-life crisis. The aforementioned events, by complicating symbolic denotations (husband, wife, father, …) and changing or even dissolving certain social bonds, cracks the subject’s ego and tasks him with the difficult task to overwrite these subtle voids of meaning.

The opening of Moon In The Ordinary underlines that Aoto sought to utilize the signifying effect of establishing a predictable daily rhythm and the elevation of certain coincidences to fleeting moments of joy to neutralize the fracturing of his marital bond and the physical absence of a woman in his life. However, his choice to await Yoko at the hospital signals the inadequacy of his attempt; the meaning produced by the establishment of a daily rhythm can, beyond its stabilizing effect, not counteract the lingering subjective effect sorted by the absence of a romantic bond, of the reality of solitude. 

However, his unverbalized romantic hope is dented when he, after accompanying her home after their first ‘support-session’, sees a young man waiting for her in front of her apartment. Luckily, at their second session, Yoko suddenly invites him over at her place, stating that she is short on money and does not want to be treated. While the second encounter restores his silent hope and establishes a soothing sense of closeness, a shadow is thrown over their future together when Yoko, after having a medical check-up, is diagnosed with progressive colorectal cancer and decides to undergo surgery.

Despite the fact that the news shocks Aoto, he does not hesitate to lend his support – and utilize this unexpected turn of events to produce signification for himself and their bond together. In a certain sense, the reality of cancer compels him to act and write, before time runs out, a sexual relationship with her, a sooting shared narrative.   

    

At the same time, Doi signals that, despite being engaged in writing a narrative with another subject, there are things that cannot be interweaved into the interactional fabrication. Yoko’s mental presence after the surgery and during the chemotherapy sessions evokes the very fact that, even with support, she must, as a subject, find a way to integrate her new bodily reality and the faint shadow of death into her ego, into her personal narrative (Narra-note 1). Such personal narrativizing – such reshuffling of the ego – directly impacts the ability of the subject to actively bring her ego into play within a romantic narrative that is, by exchanging acts and signifiers, being written.

Nobohiro Doi does not offer any surprises at the level of his composition, delivering a straightforward and balanced mix of static and dynamic shots. As Moon In The Ordinary is centred around the circling of signifiers, around what, via the signifier, can be expressed concerning one’s subject, it is not surprising that Doi generally relies on static moments to frame conversational moments and utilizes dynamism to contextualize the narrative space and guide moments of spatial transitions (Cine-note 1). Doi, however, succeeds in adding some elegance to his composition by turning the image into signifier at certain times and evoke, with fluidly interweaved visual excursions, certain subjective truths – e.g. Kensho’s crush on Yoko during his junior high school days (Cine-note 2).    

Doi seeks to infuse a sense of naturalism within his visuals and, thus, his narrative by using naturalistic lighting and colour-schemes. By decorating certain transition-sequences – e.g. Kensho Aoto cycling to his workplace – and fleeting flashbacks with music, Doi breathe a pleasant gentleness into the film’s atmosphere and its retrained narrative rhythm (Music-note 1). However, at the same time, the musical accompaniment signals the division between the equilibrium of Aoto’s daily rhythm and the arousal of his desire for romantic connection. 

Moon in The Ordinary is a film that, despite its thematical relevance, will not be able to engage everyone. While it offers a revealing glance in the mental and relational world of the middle-aged subject, spectators who haven’t had similar experiences might struggle to emotionally invest into the characters and the narrative. However, despite our warning, we do hope that spectator give Doi’s narrative its fair chance.  

Notes

Structure-note 1: Doi opens his narrative with an indeterminate moment of his ending, then explores the past up until that moment, and, finally, continues his denouement of the narrative. He adds fleeting excursions to Aoto and Sudo’s high-school years to highlight how the subject’s present colours his recollection of the past.

Narra-note 1: Yoko’s refusal of all confessions made by boys during her youth is, in this sense, intrinsically linked to the way she solved her mother’s puzzling acts within the field of romance.

Her initial reaction of despising her mother and, later, her self-loathing for being unable herself to come to terms with the subjectivity of her mother is painfully reflected in her self-destructive relational trajectory and defines her stance towards Aoto and the shadowy reality of death that clings to her. Happiness is something you need be able to subjectivity make place for.        

Cine-note 1: In some cases, Doi utilizes subtle dynamism to create a near-static frame for conversational interactions.

Cine-note 2: In some instances, Doi turns to shaky framing to emphasize the way speech trembles the ego and his subjective position – e.g. the doctor explaining Yoko Sudo about the surgery and the stoma, Yoko Sudo introduces the dimension of death into her conversation with Kensho Aoto.

Music-note 1: Doi also musically decorates certain moments within Moon In The Ordinary that function both as moments of spatial transition and as narrative moments, sequences that emphasize the exchange of signifiers. In this way, he successfully signals the burgeoning establishment of a bond that comforts or pacifies, through signification, two subjects.