Awadatsu seishun: A dusty, beautiful mess

Is it worth your time?

Honestly, it depends on if you're in the mood for something that just kind of exists. If you want high-octane thrills or a tight, logical script, you’re going to be checking your watch every ten minutes. But if you like movies that feel like a half-remembered dream—the kind where you’re not sure why you’re in this room, but the lighting is nice—then yeah. Pull up a chair.

It’s not trying to win an Oscar. It’s just trying to be a vibe. 🎞️

Notes from the couch

• The pacing is weird. It’s not slow, it’s just... distracted.
• Rakuten Nishimura has this way of looking at the camera that makes me think he’s bored, or maybe he’s just hungry. It’s hard to tell.
• There is a scene in the kitchen that lasts way too long. The characters are just passing a bowl of fruit back and forth. I don’t know why. I loved it.

The whole thing reminded me a bit of the aimless energy in A Great Big Bunch of You, though far less cartoonish. It’s got that same sense of people being trapped in their own heads.

The "Why did they do that?" moment

About halfway through, someone starts humming a tune and nobody acknowledges it. It’s like the sound guy forgot to cut the track, or maybe the character just really needed to hum. It’s that kind of perfectly imperfect detail that keeps me watching.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of Awadatsu seishun (1934) through its definitive frames.

I found myself comparing it to the moodier stretches of The Barricade. Not in story, obviously. Just in that feeling that the world outside the frame is empty, leaving these people to just spin in circles.

There is a lot of silence in this movie. Not the "dramatic tension" kind of silence. Just the kind where people are sitting on a curb and don't have anything left to say. It feels refreshingly human. Most movies are terrified of dead air. This one practically lives in it.

If you're looking for a reason to watch, don't look for the plot. Look for the way the light hits the floorboards in the second act. It’s gorgeous for no reason at all. ☀️

Anyway, I probably wouldn't watch it again tonight. But I’m glad I saw it. It’s a strange little thing.