The end of the credits tells us in very large text that this short was shot in fewer than 100 hours for less than £100 and I appreciate it telling me this so clearly because it at least explains the context of the short to me, although maybe it would have been better to have had this up at the front of the film as a smaller title credit? I say this because I wanted to like the film but kept wondering why it was done in the way it was and why so much of it seemed to push me away. The plot is about a young woman who is a Hikikomori which is a Japanese word (although the film appears to be set in England) which means literally "pulling inward" and is used to describe those who withdraw totally from society, inside living through gaming, online communities and other media. This description alone should perhaps tell you why the subject interests me!
The manner of delivery for the film is that we see lots of shots of Alyx (Haruka Abe) gaming, lying around her flat, staring ahead with dead but wide eyes and generally being closed off to as much as possible. Over this we get a narration which is heavy in poetic prose but didn't really draw me in so much as it did annoy me with its obtuse and overly important way of presenting the character. As an extra layer between me and the film, the constant electronic music also grated on me and, although it gave the film energy, I didn't feel like it fitted at all well. As a visual focal point Abe is really good and you don't feel like she is "acting" so much as we are just watching her, but in her narration, well, there is only so much she could do with those words.
It deserves credits for doing what it did with so little resources in terms of money and time, but the downside is that the existence of the film is the story, not the film itself. Viewed without the context it is limited and has a narration and soundtrack that don't work and fail to make the most of the natural presence of Abe and the well shot visuals.
