Tengoku wa mada tôi

A short film that left me feeling a bit detached, Heaven is Still Far Away never quite engrossed me or moved me, but I can't call it bad by any means. It was Ryusuke Hamaguchi kind of doing his thing, and though I really loved Drive My Car, the other stuff I've seen from him has never hit as hard.

Unusually, maybe the long runtime afforded by that 2021 film is what helps it become engrossing, in that you have to sit still and become slowly engaged in an epic of the soul, or whatever you want to call it pretentiously. When he does something simple and kind of blunt in a short film format, it's harder to soak in and come to terms with... or maybe this story just wasn't quite as interesting.