As there are relaxation musics (which means musics without great originality nor depth, created to put the audience in a state of relaxation), NANAYOMACHI is a "relaxation movie". This movie is made of a succession of sequences (massages, low voice lines, etc.) very calm and soothing. With this kind of movies, a lot of directors would have made a terribly boring film; KAWASE NAOMI did manage to create extremely simple moments (to the extent that we could ask ourselves why and how to appreciate such an empty movie !) and to catch them with a lot of subtleties. The choice in lighting, filming, editing - which, to give you an idea, is close to the "Lightness-of-Life"-style of the best advertising for perfume - shows the formal talent of KAWASE. Right after, I watched another movie, but my mind was still on the sensory trip that NANAYOMACHI offered to me.
To me, the only thing missing to make this movie a masterpiece, is a little depth. For example, Saiko never really explained why she left Japan. It could have been explained into details, to give a little bit more "sorrow", more "depth" to the character; that, at the end of the movie, there is not a feeling of having just seen a touristic movie.
Unfortunately, the lack of depth of this movie makes its sensation vanishes as the memory of a massage, or a meditation... Let's believe that KAWASE did it on purpose to make us see her movie often. And as far as I'm concerned, I'll often see it...
KAWASE's movies :
Moe no suzaku 7/10
Sharasojyu 10/10 (one of my all time favorites!)
Mogari no mori 5/10
Nanayomachi 8/10
