KATATSUMURI (1997)

Overview

Give it your all, give it your best, give it your courage. Akane is withdrawn and unable to communicate well with others. She is looking for a job, but can't find one, and her younger brother, who lives with her, lectures her about it. Her hobby is to go for walks in the morning when the town is deserted. One snowy morning, Akane sees a man carrying a red TV and follows him to the rubbish dump. Akane is fascinated by the man's unique atmosphere, and takes the TV home with her. She dismantles the TV and makes a snail object from its parts. The next day, Akane is trying to return the TV with the snail hidden in it, when she is spotted by the man. She rushes to turn back, but decides to hand over the TV to the man. The town is covered with snow and is very quiet, and the protagonist never speaks. This is the director's way of reading the beauty in things that are often overlooked, and it leads effectively to the ending, in which the protagonist steps forward to communicate.