From the outset it's not necessarily special in any way. Plenty of films have been made about a person experiencing a difficult time in their lives, and a friend or chance encounter (whether real or imaginary) enters their lives at just the right moment to help them through it, usually by inspiring the self-confidence they previously lacked. All that is left is to fill in the details: a lonely high school girl in modern Japan being mercilessly bullied, a silkworm, and a new classmate. Just because we've seen other iterations of the story doesn't make this one any less worthy, however. I immediately appreciate the on-screen chemistry between Hoshi Moeka and Motola Serena, making Mayuri and Tsumugi's friendship very believable, and Oishi Takao's soft score of predominant dream-pop, ambience, and simple piano chords is lovely and enchanting. Even on a surface level 'Girls' encounter' is pleasant and satisfying, and darker or more dramatic vibes can't take away from the warmth that it carries overall.
Filmmaker Eda Yuka deserves a lot of credit in my book, because even across cultures the teenage experience is very similar for most humans in the modern world, and she has captured it to a T. Protagonist Mayuri is depressed and ill at ease with the world around her, feeling detached from classmates and her parents, and questioning why she is alive. As empathetic Tsumugi comes into the picture Mayuri discovers a spark she had been missing, and things start to turn around for her. Yes, there are otherwise familiar beats and ideas, but even the dialogue, supporting characters, and scenes scattered throughout are plucked directly from real life, lending great verisimilitude to the proceedings as we see glimpses of the human experience through the eyes of Mayuri and her new friends. Hoshi and Motola give heartfelt, nuanced performances befitting the tenor of the material, and even as the feature maintains a gentle tone it keeps us invested.
Then again, with all this having been said, the movie falls short. There comes a point when it seems as if Eda didn't know what direction to take the story, and the third act wanders, becoming aimless and unsure. She had meaningful thoughts, and the themes are still there in abundance, but they do not cogently come together where it is needed most, and to be honest the troubles arguably begin in the second act. A shift in character relationships is fine, the diminishing presence of Tsumiga is fine, and so on; narrative cohesion is nevertheless lost after a time. Now, it's clear that other folks have had a different experience with this title, and found it to be more fruitful than I did, I'm glad for them. For me there's a discrete sea change in what Eda was doing throughout the length, and while I think I've a uselessly broad sense of what she was trying to do, but I simply don't believe it works. This doesn't mean that 'Girls' encounter' is bad, yet unless you're a viewer who happens to be on the exact same wavelength, the lasting value this has is up in the air at best, and it's hard to offer a particular recommendation with "well, maybe."
Check it out if you like. May the film resonate more with you than it did with me.
