7 minutes. It doesn’t ask for any more of your precious time. Amidst all the troubles in life, if you decide and manage to invest that amount of time in watching this ultra short film, what you get is something that will undoubtedly stay with you for a long time.
Dareka no Manazashi awes with its simplicity. It portrays a certain phase of human life, i.e., the growing up phase and the changes that come along with it in one’s life, that almost every person experiences. It is about how we tend to put up facades in public just for the sake of presenting ourselves as intellectual grown-ups. It is also about how during this process, we end up losing our child-like innocence and the ability to be brazenly honest about our true feelings.
Humans are a strange lot. As children, we possess such noble virtues of honesty and good-will but as we grow up and enter adulthood, we try our best to discard them, largely because of the fear of being ridiculed and not being taken seriously in the harsh world of adults. This film expresses just that. What is really appreciable about the film is that it does not try to pass a judgement. It doesn’t advise us on whether it’s the right thing to do or not. It does not tell us whether it’s the right way or not. It just puts forth a stark reality of human life before us and tries to be optimistic about the happening of it all.
The film shows the advent of the transition phase in a girl’s life, her gradual years of growing up from a child to a self-sustaining adult, and how it affects her relations with her father and family.
Aya Okamura, the girl and lady in question, lived happily with her father and mother in a typical nuclear family. She had a certain sense of freeness as a child, always happy and joyous in the presence of her doting parents. But gradually, as life takes certain turns, she starts to feel ashamed of her parents, making jokes about them in front of friends and also develops an independent streak which makes her live on her own away from them. But in reality, she feels guilty of it all and tries to make amends. This is something most of us experience in life and it is the films very close connect with reality that makes it a good watch.
Even if we stay away from our parents, we always crave for them, consciously or sub-consciously. Sometimes we are unable to admit it in fear of sounding weak or just feel ashamed. But we do, at all times, feel the pangs of separation from our parents when we live apart from them. The child in us always craves for those two special people. No matter how much we may deny it, the one thing that supports us in life and which is the pillar of our existence in the world is our family. This is the core message Dareka no Manazashi tries to convey.
The world is a tough place to survive in and more so, when one is alone. We realize how we have been protected and cared for by our parents only when we separate from them. It is then that our heart cries for them. It is then that we want them to shield us from the harshness of the world over again. Aya’s beautiful relation with her father is heart-warming. The mutual love they have for each other is undeniably great though they do not express it openly at any point of time. It’s her family that matters to her the most, is what the narrator hopes Aya to realize. And us as well.
The animation is beautiful and fitting. It complements the atmosphere built up wonderfully with some neat artwork. The background song that starts playing towards the end is soulful and heart-felt and connects deeply with the message that the film tries to convey.
In overall, the film is a great watch. Not only does it manage to bring tears to your eyes in such a short period of time but also it enriches you with a certain realization. It does not obfuscate but rather presents some everyday events that occur in almost every human’s life in a simplified manner. And therein lies its charm because as they say, in simplicity lies greatness.
