Summary
A surreal voyage through a single night that seems like a year. It may not make literal sense, particularly in the free-flowing second half, but it is never anything less than engaging.
In between his work on Space Dandy, Lu Over the Wall, and this year’s Devilman Crybaby on Netflix, Masaaki Yuasa slipped out the sophisticated and adult-oriented animation NIGHT IS SHORT, WALK ON GIRL (夜は短し歩けよ乙女). Based on the novel by Tomihiko Morimi, and sharing characters with The Tatami Galaxy, it’s a free-flowing journey through the comedy of this thing we call romance.
On paper, the plot seems simple enough. An unnamed university Senior (voiced by Gen Hoshino) has finally decided to confess his feelings to The Girl with Black Hair (the omnipresent voice actress Kana Hanazawa). She in turn has decided to put aside inhibitions and have a lively night of drinking and social engagement. As he chases her through the city, the pair separately encounter a series of eccentric and surreal characters that populate the night.
If that all sounds a bit stalkery, there’s definitely an element of entitlement in Senior’s motivations. Yet as you would expect from the director of Mind Game and a segment in Genius Party, Masaaki Yuasa is as much about subverting those as he is about fulfilling them. Meetings range from a cocktail drinking montage to a collective of dancing sophists. There’s lecherous men, but the titular Girl is capable of packing a mean punch. There’s also The Underpants Leader, who refuses to change his underwear until he reunites with the dream girl he had a chance encounter with a year ago.
Cultimating at a book fair, one that features a gender-fluid guerrilla play called ‘Obstinate King,’ NIGHT IS SHORT, WALK ON GIRL can seem pretty weird at times. This train of thought chugs along regardless of the stations, weaving in and out of hot nabe induced hallucinations, and battles with the gods of books and flus. If you’re willing to accept it as a visual collage, you may have no issue with this. Audiences craving something more linear will definitely struggle with the nonsensical narrative, especially in the final third of the film.
As a piece of art, Masaaki Yuasa’s film is sublime. Character designer Yūsuke Nakamura’s unreal figures glide through their liquid landscape, but it’s still surprising when they act like a cartoon. Necks bulge and expand, for example, when someone swallows a large quantity of booze in one hit. Cutaways to non sequiturs or flashbacks are filled with inverted colours and retro flatness, like something Mary Blair would have created. During the climactic moments, there’s a wonderful sequence where Senior’s internal defences give way to instinct.
NIGHT IS SHORT, WALK ON GIRL is basically an extension of the Alice in Wonderland archetype, albeit one that has an underlying message about connection in a chaotic world. “Even if you want to remain alone,” argues the Girl in the final scenes, “you are connected no matter what.” The film doesn’t always make sense, but there’s still a lot to appreciate in its construction.
2018 | Japan | DIRECTOR: Masaaki Yuasa | WRITERS: Makoto Ueda (Based on the book by Tomihiko Morimi) | CAST: Gen Hoshino, Kana Hanazawa, Hiroshi Kamiya | DISTRIBUTOR: Toho, Japan Cuts (US) | RUNNING TIME: 92 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 21 July 2018 (Japan Cuts)
