#the yamadas are at the centre of it all and the beginning of it all too

[akkivee]

what will they be doing when they’re on opposite sides from the rest of their team i wonder??? 🤔🤔🤔

[denimbex1986]

'Ever since his breakout role in lockdown TV smash Normal People, Paul Mescal, a Screen Star of Tomorrow in 2020, has proved himself to be an alluring presence, capable of enormous empathy and range, be it on stage or screen.

In Andrew Haigh’s All Of Us Strangers, a haunting adaptation of Taichi Yamada’s 1987 novel Strangers, Mescal vividly portrays Harry, neighbour to Andrew Scott’s Adam. The two men live in the same east London tower block and meet one evening when Harry drunkenly turns up at the door of Adam’s apartment, where he is rebuffed. Eventually, the two men begin a relationship, as Adam, a lonely screenwriter, revisits his suburban childhood home where he somehow meets his mother and father (played by Claire Foy and Jamie Bell), who died in a car crash when he was nearly 12.

All Of Us Strangers — which Searchlight Pictures opened in the US in December and the UK in late January following its premiere at Telluride — was a no-brainer for Mescal, offering him the opportunity to work with Andrews Haigh and Scott — “it would be difficult for a film with those two people at the centre of it to go wrong” — as well as the chance to play someone “a little bit more forward than other characters I’ve played”.

Mescal opted to have Harry, whose family have effectively disowned him for being gay, come from Leeds. “There’s something interesting about him escaping some place like Leeds and coming to London, hoping for a more expansive life, and having a smaller one when he gets there,” explains Mescal. “I can relate to that feeling of leaving a place, hoping for something because it’s been dictated to you that life happens in the big city. But if your family doesn’t accept you, doesn’t give [you love], you’re fucked before you begin. So, I was working back from that. A lot of acting should feel intuitive.”

By the time the film ends, a major revelation — spoiler alert — recalibrates our view of Harry. When Mescal first read the script, he was floored by what is revealed. “Then it made total sense, because it’s not about what’s real, what’s not. It’s about what do we feel?” As such, Mescal plays Harry as a real person rather than, say, a ghost. “Because he’s also unaware of what’s going on. For all intents and purposes, he is as real as Adam is. That would have been one of the only things that would have made me not want to be involved — if there was a prerequisite to do ‘spooky acting’.”

As Adam’s memories and reveries coalesce with his reality, he reconnects with his dead parents, which allows him to open up and find connection and romance with the mysterious Harry. “We knew each other a little bit. Grew to know each other quite well during the filming, and have been getting closer and closer and closer,” says Mescal of Scott. “What he does in this film is an absolute joke in terms of the standard of performance and how lightly he wears it.”

Connective tissue

On screen, the two Ireland-born actors have what critics and casting directors like to call ‘chemistry’, in much the same way Mescal and Edgar-Jones had ‘chemistry’ in Normal People, even if he bristles at the term. “It’s not a word that actors [use],” Mescal insists. “But you must endeavour a little bit to try and fall in love, in whatever that capacity is. And Andrew is a very easy person to fall in love with. He’s kind, generous, talented. We shot the film at the perfect junction in our friendship where there was a lot we didn’t know about each other, but there was mutual admiration and respect. And a similar sense of humour.”

Remarkably, the pair had no rehearsal time together. Did they know instantly that their onscreen relationship was working? “Yeah, it felt fizzy when we were acting,” says Mescal. “Especially with that first scene at the door — it’s so well-written. You feel like you’re dancing through the scene, you can go in loads of different ways, and if I went one way, Andrew would go another. If that’s what chemistry is, I was aware it was happening.”

While All Of Us Strangers was nominated for six Baftas, including outstanding British film and supporting actor and actress for Mescal and Foy, Scott was, surprisingly, overlooked by the leading actor jury. “It’s the stuff of dreams to make a film that is independent, and for an organisation to recognise the film and your performance, Claire’s performance and Andrew Haigh,” begins Mescal, choosing his words carefully. “[But] I’m perplexed and confused. How can an institution recognise all those things and neglect that? It doesn’t make sense.

“This is not a criticism of anybody else’s performance in that category. It’s not even a criticism of Bafta. I think a mistake happened.”

In the aftermath of Normal People, while Edgar-Jones largely pursued opportunities in the US, Mescal stayed mostly in the UK doing smaller films, among them Aftersun (for which he was nominated for best leading actor by both Bafta and Oscar) and theatre (winning an Olivier Award for A Streetcar Named Desire). He says he was offered several big movies but, as both actor and viewer, is drawn to indie films.

One massive movie that did take Mescal’s fancy, however, was Gladiator 2, Ridley Scott’s upcoming sequel to his Oscar-winning epic, which Mescal recently wrapped following a strike-imposed hiatus. “You would struggle to find a single actor on the planet who would say no to Ridley Scott and Gladiator, because Gladiator was an amazing character study.

“I loved every second working with him,” he continues. “I loved having to adjust the way I’ve worked, particularly in the last couple of years, to work with somebody who’s the master of what he does. You don’t have to imagine anything. He gives you scale, he gives you extras, he gives you horses.

“Having said that,” adds Mescal, “I’m looking forward to doing something that will probably be predominantly single camera, a $7m-$8m film in the next couple of weeks.”

That film is Living director Oliver Hermanus’s The History Of Sound with Josh O’Connor, which has been in the works since 2020, and Mescal has already started shooting Richard Linklater’s musical Merrily We Roll Along, which, similar to the director’s Boyhood, is a years-of-filming odyssey. He also has Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet, in which he plays William Shakespeare, booked for later in the year.

While the likes of Hermanus’s film “will always feel like home”, Mescal notes regarding his Scott epic: “I felt an immense relief that the job still felt like the job, doing something like Gladiator, as it did on Aftersun, as it did on All Of Us Strangers. That was the big thing I didn’t know going into it — whether it would still feel the same.” Fortunately for Mescal — and for the breadth of roles the experience potentially opens up — it did.'

[ciairvoyant]

MASTERMIND VERSE. 

this verse actually begins multiple years before hope’s peak, back when hiro was in his first year of his repeated year of highschool and way before he meets any one of his soon to be classmates.

one morning, he prepares his usual series of predictions, two of them appear to be his usual, day to day kind of predictions ( the sun is going to stop shining at 11am tomorrow, the dishwasher back home will stop working on sunday night because you forgot to unload it properly ) but the third ... hints to something essentially disastrous: hope’s peak class 78 is going to be involved in a series of murders set to destroy ever last piece of hope the entirety of humanity has in the sake of their own grief and despair. 

while at first, he’s willing to write this off as simply a fluke, or random interjection from his thoughts at the time. he has a similar one the next day, and the day after that .... ultimately until this points to two weeks. it becomes clear that such a prediction is looking a surefire way to come true. so hiro makes a choice: to try and stop this for once and for all.

hiro chooses to make himself repeat his school years multiple times, in order to secure himself to be part of the same year as such a class ( even if this means joining hope’s peak’s aforementioned reserve course ), but luckily recieves a prediction that he, in fact, will be scouted for the ultimate clairvoyant of the same class and year. he keeps track of the forums predicting the other students said to be scouted for hope’s peak, and tries his best to learn their likes and dislikes. he meets up with sayaka’s manager again and tells him that giving her more leeway will certainly create better music and a lifestyle for her, he meets up with an underground gambler, asking him if he’ll reconsider trying to beat his next opponent. he attends an anime convention, asking fujiko yamada if she’s willing to truly put her work above her brother, and meet kanon nakajima to tell her that her cousin does appreciate her and that truthfully he wants her to be happiest with someone who will truly appreciate her in an attempt to fix everything he deems as a risk from such a bulletine board.

despite this, his predictions remain the same. even after he takes one step onward,  meeting up with the postman rumoured to deliver the ultimate lucky students mail to ask them to make an important deal out of it so the lucky student feels special. trying to question jin kirigiri about his relationship with his daughter and being firmly rejected. his predictions remain the same even after he joins hope’s peak after that, making his damned best to ensure that everyone gets on in good terms, resolving as much conflict as he can ( obviously some pieces are a lost cause, but- ) in fact, the moment the tragedy hits, it gets worse. 

one night him and leon stay up late because neither of them can sleep, and when leon asks him to give his prediction, hiro sees a vision of his execution. he follows kiyotaka to help out with his early morning chores and ends up opening a door for him only to have a vision that it’s his body there, laying dead on the floor rather than before him. he calls junko mukuro in midst of a vision of seeing her getting impaled by spears, his own hand smaking a bottle against sakuras head in the midst of a talk about strength with her. each of these leading up to a series of events in which he feels he cannot control. 

except, there is one thing he manages to change: in his prediction of her death, he opens mukuro up to the reality earlier that junko will ultimately betray her, no matter what. and in the night in which everyone essentially has their memory wiped, she tells hiro she won;t wipe his memory, as long as he plays pretend that he’s dead so that they can get the upper hand on junko when the time comes, and hides him up in the morgue under the pretence he has passed away, giving him the headmasters key in order to get back down and overcome for now. 

the killing game begins as planned without hiro, but it’s with his and mukuro’s plan that they manage to stop the first motive being aired on that day. instead, mukuro taking centre stage for her and junkos plan much earlier than expected, while junkos distracted - it’s hiro who breaks in the headmasters office and essentially shoves junko out in order to stop the killing game, obviously believing himself the victor, he doesn’t see the door that closes in behind him, or the screen that greets him straight away.

junko still betrayed her twin sister for the despair, and mukuro ikusaba’s unfortunate death despite all he did to change it haunts hiro in a way he didn’t expect ... 

[mi4017]

SILENT VOICE (KOE NO KATACHI) 2016

I’m a sucker for slice of life shows, i love it for the same reason i like comedy!

they’re lighthearted, give a feelgood vibe - with a colourful cast of characters that normally have very nice interactions - a kind of fun you can only see characters have, not real people.

usually I'm not big on anime... its just not a media that i grew up with and have no nostalgia nor personal interest for. I can completely see why others enjoy it, but its just not for me: and I think that’s a completely fair and respectable point of view.

but dang... this film is beautiful.

Koe no Katachi / Silent Voice (2016)

When a grade school student with impaired hearing is bullied mercilessly, she transfers to another school. Years later, one of her former tormentors sets out to make amends.

i think conceptually - this is a really nice story. redemption is a theme i feel always has a special place in storytelling, there’s something about watching the protagonist overcome the difficulties they’ve had in their past, and come back a better person because of it thats so rewarding. 

I think that’s due, in part, to the way everyone thinks of themselves - humans are naturally very doubtful, and self-deprecating: the fastest to point out their own flaws. i don't think i know anyone that is genuinely happy with who they are, with everyone ashamed of some part of themselves, and their pasts.

however - the context of redemption is an important factor. there’s unforgivable acts that cause immense damage - so much so, that no matter how different they are, they can't bring themselves to forgive what they’ve done.

personally, i agree with the mentality that the victims of situations should be the factor that dictate whether the act is forgivable or not, but that doesn't necessarily mean you can forgive yourself.

the film centres around a boy named Shoya Ishida, who bullied a deaf girl named Shōko Nishimiya, when he was a kid - and is seeking to make amends for the way he treated her.

in the film, this is down-played, with it taking up about ten minutes of the film, as an opening segment. 

I’ve both read the manga, and watched the film. The way each version is handled differently yet still tells a similar story, with the same cast of characters is a point of interest to me, and i think each version has it’s charm. 

if you're interested, i personally prefer the manga version - it’s much grittier, and makes scenes from the movie a lot more understandable, due to missing content - the tone becomes understandable. 

Shõko transfers to Shoya’s school, and instantly things change - with classes having to accommodate for a student, with a disability. this annoys Shoya, and his friends, and to ‘get back at her’ as they see fit they begin to tease her.

Shõko wears hearing aids, and Shoya learns that yanking them out will entertain both him and his friends. A female student, Naoko, also leads the way in ostracising the deaf girl.

Shõko does everything in her power to fit in, communicate and make friends, but due to her disability she is ultimately forced to spend her time alone. this unfair treatment seems absolutely barbaric - but the sad reality is that it happens. 

i personally have a few audibly-impaired pals, and it’s upsetting to watch the way they’re treated. People find it difficult to communicate with them, and in essence - due to not enjoying the time they spend with them, isolate them. this is, of course, a generalisation based on my experience - i think that this is what makes my friendship with them feel unique - a percentage of the individuals i encounter have very few connections, which makes their bond with myself feel more significant.

Shõko is targeted by Shoya, and his gang - who pour water on, trip her up, and rips out a number of her hearing aids: one time so forcefully her ears bleed. 

He is scapegoated as the only bully in the class despite how many of his classmates have contributed to Shõko’s suffering. Due to this, his friends turn their attention on him, and the torment they inflicted on Shõko is now being flipped on himself.

we skip over the next few years of Shoya’s life - they pass, as nothing noteworthy happens. Shoya lost everyone, now he can’t look anyone in the eyes, which is visually represented by x’s over the faces of all the students at school. 

He’s alone. but accepts this as his punishment for what he did to Shoko. 

i think this is one of the aspects that sold me on the film: the second you see what Shoya has become you instantly understand he’s truly changed. he’s gone from a spunky kid, swaggering down the halls with tons of friends to this sorry state.

he's resentful for the way he treated Shõko, so much so that he’s considering killing himself - conveyed by the simple and chilling way he cuts out the rest of a calendar after the date he chooses to die.

after reuniting with Shõko, the rest of the film follows the new relationship they build, along with the reactions of their old classmates.

“What I have given a lot of attention to when portraying Shoya’s position and circumstances was to portray Shoya as an individual character – to carefully understand and stay true to the intentions of what he saw, what he felt and what actions he took.  I have tried to build the character so that Shoya will be able to act as himself, no matter what the circumstances,” - Yamada.

It’s hard to argue that Shoya is not worthy of redemption: he works for years to pay back the cost of the hearing aids, he almost kills himself, he accepts his own isolation and misery, and he reaches out to Shoya to make amends and help her wishes come true.

I walked away from the experience truly contemplating a lot of things. to all the people out there who picked on me at school, the ones who made me feel like shit and hate myself.

i forgive you.

and i hope one day - you can do the same. forgive yourself

[hifuminnn]

p please give me some hcs of saburo getting a crush on a boy.... i'll thrive...

Saburo x Boys

This is so cute I’m ksksksks

He thought you were pretty interesting when he first met you at a fan-meet 

Not too loud, not too flashy, and the only one who grinned at the calculus joke he made (that had left 99.9% of the audience in complete silence) 

He’d try to tell himself that he wasn’t getting a crush on you, that it was just a passing infatuation 

But then his thoughts of you just became stronger, more intense, and he realised that his mind always seemed to wander back to you whenever someone started flirting with him during fan-meets 

“What is he doing now? I wonder” 

He tries his best to keep you out of his thoughts, but he can’t seem to stop his eyes from searching the crowd, to find that one familiar face

His stomach is full of butterflies, and his brothers seem to notice (of course they do), and when they ask him about it, he brushes it off 

His performance during lives aren’t as good, and when his brothers push him enough, he spills about you, the way your eyes capture his, the way your clothes seemed to be a little too big for you, the way your hands locked into his when you two shook hands during the fan-meet

Saburo never thought he’d get a crush, but here he was, standing in front of you, his eyes locked firmly onto yours

He has been disappointed many times, but he finally found you during this one live, and everything else flew out of his brain as his focus centred on you, and you alone

I’m having so much fun writing this

“I…uh…”

He knows people are watching, so he just grabs your hand and scribbles a number onto your arm before sprinting away

Poor boy is so anxious

You’re confused, but certainly as a Saburo stan, you’d be shocked if your idol decided to scribble a number onto your arm, a number that looked dangerously similar to a phone number

He waits, nervously for your call, or a text message, or even a voicemail containing a small cough, hating himself for not asking for your number, or even your name

The Yamada Brothers would have known by now, and they all sit, crowded around the phone that lay on the table (I feel like even the other divisions would have known that something was wrong with Saburo and Jyuto would probably be like “ah…adolescent love”) 

All he has is your face, and his memory of your skin in contact with his

When his phone finally beeps he jumps, and it’s late, around 11pm, and he picks the phone up, his heart slamming against his chest

“Um…is this Saburo Yamada-kun?…Is this the right number?…” The text message says, and Saburo shakes his head to make sure that his eyes aren’t deceiving him 

He smiles at your profile picture, before replying back with shaking fingers

And it’s all cute talk and his brothers have never seen him happier, but soon you two begin to grow closer, he asks you out and of course you say yes!!

[smol-gay-werewolf]

Obsession in the blood

I watch him carefully, just look at him! With his fancy suit and his golden hair, no wonder the  female student body has a crush on him (Bar the lesbians and a-spec people). But not the men, oh no, that's my forte. Well obviously not the ones that don't swing that way but that's a given. Either way I'm the dark shadow figure that's caught the minds (and hearts) of most males in this school.

The one I want however, is just out of reach. When me and Tamaki sat down together he, knowing of my preferences decided that in order to keep the club professional, all members wouldn't be allowed to date each other. Although know he's regretting that since now he can't be with Haruhi. That's what I want to talk to him about, abolishing that rule. So I can date the person I like and so he can be with Haruhi. It's a foolproof plan, so I thought anyway...

When I ask him about it after the club, he refuses, declaring that all the rules he laid out were for good reason and to stop this exact thing from happening. I try bringing Haruhi up but he ignores me and even goes so far as to call me 'unprofessional' can you believe it??

So I guess I'll have to take matter into my own hands, and by that I mean a little friend of mine. I phone her up and manage to strike a deal, if I can help her get rid of her ex then she'll we if she can patch me through to an old friend of hers. The world renowned personal investigator known only as 'info-chan'.

It's easy to convince the club to take a holiday to the quaint little town of Acidemi, it's an odd name but it is famous for its school and the murders that took place. When we arrive and check into our hotel I tell them I'm going for a walk, I manage to spot the man in the park. My cousin's ex; Taro Yamada.

I approach him and pretend to be lost, I ask him to show me to the nearest commoners ramen shop, which I know is down an alleyway. He politely agrees, this is turning out to be rather easy. While we walk I notice that he seems to be walking rather close to me, I begin to find it odd that he'd agree to show a stranger somewhere through an alley especially in a place known for murders. At least I know that he won't kill me but I have no real knowledge on who this man is. This night have been a bad deal, am I really willing to do all this just for Kaoru? He might not even like me back, I suppose obsession runs in my blood.

It's when we're halfway down the alley that I choose to strike, it seems he's had the same idea as I soon find myself pinned to a wall. I'm not exactly the strongest of people, I was counting on the element of surprise to be my aid. I stare at him with wide eyes, still completely committed to playing innocent. "S-sir? What are you doing?"

He chuckles and raises an eyebrow at me. "You really think that's gonna work on me, do ya Ootori?" I blink at him, unsure as to how he knows my name. He appears to have read my mind as he then replys: "Oh we know all about you young man, three missing persons reports and two cases to premeditated murder. All sources point to you. Anything to say for youself?"

It appears my innocent act held no ground, he had evidence that I was far from innocent. But how on earth did they know it was me? And why confront me now? I was so close... I'm lost for words but still manage to choke out a few. "Why- Why now..?" He sighs and his face displays genuine pity. "Look kid, I don't like this any more then you do but you've done some very bad things and those things do have consequences."

He gives me a kind smile and takes out some hand cuffs. A cop, I should have known... I don't protest when he handcuffs my wrists. He looks down at me again. "I'm sure they'll get you a good lawyer and you can get out of this with a minimum of two years, maybe even one. It depends on the judge." He does his best to comfort me as he leads me to the station even though he's fully aware that I just tried to kill him.

Sitting in the detention centre I have to ask him. "Was- Was Ayano in on this?" He shakes his head and mumbles something like: "I wondered why you went after me..."

[strife-and-discord]

A Series of Firsts- Chapter 5

Read on AO3 here

First - Previous 

Characters: Yamada Hizashi/Present Mic, Todoroki Shouto

Summary: Shouto needs some new clothes to fill his new bedroom so Hizashi takes him shopping.

A/N: Sorry this took so long but I’m back again! In this chapter, I wanted to explore some of the long-lasting consequences Endeavour’s behaviour had on Shouto and also give him an opportunity to bond with Hizashi. I’m low on ideas at the moment so if you have any requests for this fic feel free to send them in!

As usual, this story is inspired by @deafmic  ‘s fic “Responsibility” which I highly recommend you go read, as it is a wonderful story.

Since Hizashi and Shouta have officially adopted him and he’s going to be staying with them from now on, they’ve been going through the long and arduous process of transferring all of Shouto’s old stuff to his new room. Shouto didn’t really want to go back to the old house so Fuyumi has been bringing over any leftover belongings she finds there. He really can’t thank her enough for how supportive she’s been throughout all of this. Hizashi noticed while he was unpacking that Shouto didn’t really have any clothes that had, as he put it, any “personality” so now he wanted to take him shopping.

To be honest the thought of going shopping feels a bit overwhelming at the moment. Shopping centres are full of people and people are loud and will probably make a big fuss over him if he’s seen out in public. There’s also the overpowering build-up of smells coming from the many food stalls that often make him feel sick. Hizashi had seen the look of worry on Shouto’s face and had told him that he didn’t have to go if he didn’t want to, but Shouto knows that he really does need to go shopping and it won’t do him any good to just hide from the things that scare him. Besides, it probably just seems really bad because he hasn’t been in a while and his father never really cared when he had what he now knows is a sensory overload. Things are different now, he’ll have Hizashi with him, who will make sure they can leave as soon as Shouto feels even a little overwhelmed.

He’s still trying to get used to having a proper say in how things go. Even just being able to make a decision based on how’s he feeling rather than what’s logical is a new experience for him. It’s hard not to fall back on old habits and push himself harder then he needs too. Every day he’s thankful that he’s got Hizashi and Shouta to help guide him. Shouta says it’s okay, normal even, to sometimes relapse into harmful behaviour and it may still happen even years from now although he should at least be better at dealing with it by then.

It should be ok to push himself a little bit though. Shopping isn’t a big deal and It’s not like the other bad habits that he normally does secretly or without thought. Hizashi even made sure to pick a day that hopefully won’t be too busy. There’s still enough people that Shouto feels nervous and he can’t help but pull the beanie he was wearing to conceal himself down a bit further. At least shopping has died down a bit since Christmas and New year have just passed.

As well as some new clothes, Hizashi is also hoping that they’ll be able to get some stuff for Shouto’s new room, although Shouto doesn’t think he would be able to manage both on one trip. Just the thought that Hizashi and Shouta are willing to let him choose out anything he wants for his new room is overwhelming on its own. As happy as he is to have the freedom of choice it’s… hard. If the last few weeks have taught him anything it’s that he’s apparently a very indecisive person and having someone make your every major life decision for you is a hard hole to crawl out of. Shouto’s never even had to consider what sort of posters he would like on his walls, which bedspread appeals to him, and whether or not he’d like to put any stuff on his shelves.

At the moment it feels like a lot of responsibility but Shouta and Hizashi have been really patient with him. He can’t help but feel a bit stupid over the fact that he struggles with something as simple as making his own choices but Shouta and Hizashi keep telling him that it’s not uncommon for kids in situations like his and he’ll learn to develop his own tastes in time. For the time being at least, Hizashi said he’s happy to help him pick out some stuff to fill his new accommodations.

As they begin their journey into the bowels of the shopping centre, Shouto feels a strong need to hold on to Hizashi’s hand but quickly brushes off the impulse as childish. However, much to his delight, Hizashi places a hand around his shoulder and looks down at him with a grin.

“Just so we don’t lose each other,” Hizashi says.

Just having that familiar weight on his shoulder instantly helps him to relax. This isn’t like when he was younger and he could either keep up with his father or get left behind, no matter how much he was suffering. Hizashi only has his best interests in mind and definitely won’t leave him behind if there’s something wrong.

They wander through the shopping centre and since Hizashi is holding on to him anyway, he takes the time to look around. Thankfully, no one seems to recognise him with his beanie on so no one’s paying him any mind. Most of the people there are families, probably getting ready for the new school year, Shouto used to get jealous when he saw them considering his family was always pretty broken. Now, he tries to look for similarities between them and what he has now. He thinks right now he most resembles the younger children being dragged along behind their flustered mothers. They look just as spaced out as he is right now.

Shouto comes to the realisation that they’ve stopped when Hizashi gives him a light shake. They’ve made it all the way to the men’s section of the clothing store and to be honest, Shouto is actually impressed by how little of the journey he processed.  

“Well, here we are kiddo-” Hizashi gestures over the selection of clothing like a ringmaster at the circus- “Go mad, choose whatever the hell you want, and feel free to ask if you want some help.”  

Shouto takes a moment to look over the clothing and try to figure out some sort of strategy. Shouto’s never really considered the clothes he wears before, he always just picked out the clothes he thought would piss off his Father the least but Hizashi says that his wardrobe is ridiculously plain for a teenage boy. In short, Shouto has no idea where to start.

He looks over to Hizashi who’s dressed in civvies for the shops. By now Shouto can recognise that Hizashi has a fairly distinct and unique style today, for example, he’s got sparkly leggings in colours that make his legs look like mermaid scales, a denim, halter neck crop top that leaves his back exposed, and his typical black leather jacket to cover up. Shouta always calls Hizashi’s style tacky but Shouto can’t deny that he really likes shiny things.

He starts to move through the aisles of clothing so Hizashi doesn’t get too concerned with him. He doesn’t think he really has the confidence to wear something as outgoing as what Hizashi’s wearing and he already draws enough attention as it is with his appearance. Not to mention how difficult it is to find outfits that match a candy cane coloured palette.

Hizashi must have noticed his hesitance because he calls out to him, “Just pick out anything that catches your eye for now. You can worry about whether it looks good later.”

The logic is perfectly sound, it’s just that Shouto’s brain won’t execute it. There are definitely items he thinks, ‘Wow, that looks nice,” but his thoughts insist on spiralling down a path of, ‘Oh it’s too bright,’ ‘It’s too flashy,’ and, ‘Something like that will never look good on me.’ He’s so used to wearing conservative clothes that he doesn’t even know how to shop for anything else at this point.

He can feel himself starting to get worked up when suddenly there’s a warm presence at his back, “Hey kiddo, it’s okay. Just take a big breath now.” Shouto follows through on the suggestion trying to let the tension out of his muscles the way Hizashi and Shouta had taught him. “Alright, how about you just show me the clothes you like and I’ll grab ‘em so you don’t have to think to hard about it,”

Shouto nods and goes back to looking at the clothes. It turns out when Hizashi said ‘show me,’ he wasn’t actually expecting Shouto to physically do anything, he just grabs everything Shouto looks at for more than a second. The collection they’ve racked up is of stuff Shouto would never have the confidence to buy of his own and he’s a little nervous to try it on. It does make him feel better if he thinks of it as Hizashi wanting him to try on the clothes.

The first thing he tries is a pale pink jumper that has a little-embroidered strawberry over the breast. Shouto thinks it looks soft and the colour is one of the few that probably suits him, but he’s hesitant because he’s worried what people will think of a boy wearing pink. He just stands and stares in the mirror for a little while before he finally works up the courage to go show Hizashi.

As soon as he steps out, looking down to hide his face, he hears quiet applause. When he looks up Hizashi is grinning like a maniac as he claps and Shouto can’t help but look at him wide-eyed.

“Y… You like it…?” Shouto can feel himself blushing.

Hizashi jumps up from where he was sitting, “Are you kidding me, kid?! I love it!”

Shouto winces a little at his volume, but he’s starting to get used to Hizashi’s naturally loud tones, he’s just worried about attracting too much attention from others.

“Do you really like it?” Shouto can’t help but make sure, “It’s not too… outgoing?”

Hizashi’s face softens at that and he steps forward to hold Shouto by the shoulders, “It is a bit outgoing, but that’s not a bad thing Shouto. You look great and I promise you other people are only going to think the same thing.”

Shouto bites his lip and looks away but Hizashi gently pulls eyes back to his, “It’s okay if you’re still a bit apprehensive. These things take time. But I promise, no one’s going to be upset with you,” Hizashi gives him a mischievous smirk, “and you will never look worse then I do on a daily basis.”

Shouto can’t help but chuckle a bit at that, “I don’t think you look so bad, you can pull off anything.”

Hizashi gives him a soft pat on the shoulder, “Well you know, the secret to pulling off anything has nothing to do with how you look, it’s about having the confidence to wear it.”

He musters up a small smile for Hizashi, “I’ll try and do my best.”

Hizashi grins at him and heads back to his seat, “Well? You ready to try on the rest?”

Shouto just nods at him and heads back into the dressing room filled with a feeling more akin to excitement instead of nerves.

[toldnews-blog]

New Post has been published on https://toldnews.com/world/why-some-japanese-pensioners-want-to-go-to-jail/

Why some Japanese pensioners want to go to jail

Japan is in the grip of an elderly crime wave – the proportion of crimes committed by people over the age of 65 has been steadily increasing for 20 years. The BBC’s Ed Butler asks why.

At a halfway house in Hiroshima – for criminals who are being released from jail back into the community – 69-year-old Toshio Takata tells me he broke the law because he was poor. He wanted somewhere to live free of charge, even if it was behind bars.

“I reached pension age and then I ran out of money. So it occurred to me – perhaps I could live for free if I lived in jail,” he says.

“So I took a bicycle and rode it to the police station and told the guy there: ‘Look, I took this.'”

The plan worked. This was Toshio’s first offence, committed when he was 62, but Japanese courts treat petty theft seriously, so it was enough to get him a one-year sentence.

Small, slender, and with a tendency to giggle, Toshio looks nothing like a habitual criminal, much less someone who’d threaten women with knives. But after he was released from his first sentence, that’s exactly what he did.

“I went to a park and just threatened them. I wasn’t intending to do any harm. I just showed the knife to them hoping one of them would call the police. One did.”

Image caption Toshio displays his own drawings in his cell

Altogether, Toshio has spent half of the last eight years in jail.

I ask him if he likes being in prison, and he points out an additional financial upside – his pension continues to be paid even while he’s inside.

“It’s not that I like it but I can stay there for free,” he says. “And when I get out I have saved some money. So it is not that painful.”

Toshio represents a striking trend in Japanese crime. In a remarkably law-abiding society, a rapidly growing proportion of crimes is carried about by over-65s. In 1997 this age group accounted for about one in 20 convictions but 20 years later the figure had grown to more than one in five – a rate that far outstrips the growth of the over-65s as a proportion of the population (though they now make up more than a quarter of the total).

And like Toshio, many of these elderly lawbreakers are repeat offenders. Of the 2,500 over-65s convicted in 2016, more than a third had more than five previous convictions.

Another example is Keiko (not her real name). Seventy years old, small, and neatly presented, she also tells me that it was poverty that was her undoing.

“I couldn’t get along with my husband. I had nowhere to live and no place to stay. So it became my only choice: to steal,” she says. “Even women in their 80s who can’t properly walk are committing crime. It’s because they can’t find food, money.”

We spoke some months ago in an ex-offender’s hostel. I’ve been told she’s since been re-arrested, and is now serving another jail-term for shoplifting.

Find out more

Japan’s Elderly Crime Wave can be heard on Assignment on the BBC World Service from Thursday 31 January – click here for transmission times

Or listen now online

Theft, principally shoplifting, is overwhelmingly the biggest crime committed by elderly offenders. They mostly steal food worth less than 3,000 yen (£20) from a shop they visit regularly.

Michael Newman, an Australian-born demographer with the Tokyo-based research house, Custom Products Research Group points out that the “measly” basic state pension in Japan is very hard to live on.

In a paper published in 2016 he calculates that the costs of rent, food and healthcare alone will leave recipients in debt if they have no other income – and that’s before they’ve paid for heating or clothes. In the past it was traditional for children to look after their parents, but in the provinces a lack of economic opportunities has led many younger people to move away, leaving their parents to fend for themselves.

“The pensioners don’t want to be a burden to their children, and feel that if they can’t survive on the state pension then pretty much the only way not to be a burden is to shuffle themselves away into prison,” he says.

The repeat offending is a way “to get back into prison” where there are three square meals a day and no bills, he says.

“It’s almost as though you’re rolled out, so you roll yourself back in.”

Newman points out that suicide is also becoming more common among the elderly – another way for them to fulfil what he they may regard as “their duty to bow out”.

The director of “With Hiroshima”, the rehabilitation centre where I met Toshio Takata, also thinks changes in Japanese families have contributed to the elderly crime wave, but he emphasises the psychological consequences not the financial ones.

“Ultimately the relationship among people has changed. People have become more isolated. They don’t find a place to be in this society. They cannot put up with their loneliness,” says Kanichi Yamada, an 85-year-old who as a child was pulled out of the rubble of his home when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.

“Among the elderly who commit crimes a number have this turning point in their middle life. There is some trigger. They lose a wife or children and they just can’t cope with that… Usually people don’t commit crime if they have people to look after them and provide them with support.”

Toshio’s story about being driven to crime as a result of poverty is just an “excuse”, Kanichi Yamada suggests. The core of the problem is his loneliness. And one factor that may have prompted him to reoffend, he speculates, was the promise of company in jail.

It’s true that Toshio is alone in the world. His parents are dead, and he has lost contact with two older brothers, who don’t answer his calls. He has also lost contact with his two ex-wives, both of whom he divorced, and his three children.

Image caption Toshio is a keen painter

I ask him if he thinks things would have turned out differently if he’d had a wife and family. He says they would.

“If they had been around to support me I wouldn’t have done this,” he says.

Michael Newman has watched as the Japanese government has expanded prison capacity, and recruited additional female prison guards (the number of elderly women criminals is rising particularly fast, though from a low base). He’s also noted the steeply rising bill for medical treatment of people in prison.

There have been other changes too, as I see for myself at a prison in Fuchu, outside Tokyo, where nearly a third of the inmates are now over 60.

There’s a lot of marching inside Japanese prisons – marching and shouting. But here the military drill seems to be getting harder to enforce. I see a couple of grey-haired inmates at the back of one platoon struggling to keep up. One is on crutches.

“We have had to improve the facilities here,” Masatsugu Yazawa, the prison’s head of education tells me. “We’ve put in handrails, special toilets. There are classes for older offenders.”

He takes me to watch one of them. It begins with a karaoke rendition of a popular song, The Reason I was Born, all about the meaning of life. The inmates are encouraged to sing along. Some look quite moved.

“We sing to show them that the real life is outside prison, and that happiness is there,” Yazawa says. “But still they think the life in prison is better and many come back.”

Michael Newman argues that it would be far better – and much cheaper – to look after the elderly without the expense of court proceedings and incarceration.

“We actually costed a model to build an industrial complex retirement village where people would forfeit half their pension but get free food, free board and healthcare and so on, and get to play karaoke or gate-ball with the other residents and have a relative amount of freedom. It would cost way less than what the government’s spending at the moment,” he says.

But he also suggests that the tendency for Japanese courts to hand down custodial sentences for petty theft “is slightly bizarre, in terms of the punishment actually fitting the crime”.

“The theft of a 200-yen (£1.40) sandwich could lead to an 8.4m-yen (£580,000) tax bill to provide for a two-year sentence,” he writes in his 2016 report.

That may be a hypothetical example, but I met one elderly jailbird whose experience was almost identical. He’d been given a two-year jail term for only his second offence: stealing a bottle of peppers worth £2.50.

And I heard from Morio Mochizuki, who provides security for some 3,000 retail outlets in Japan, that if anything the courts are getting tougher on shoplifters.

“Even if they only stole one piece of bread,” says Masayuki Sho of Japan’s Prison Service, “it was decided at trial that it is appropriate for them to go to prison, therefore we need to teach them the way: how to live in society without committing crime.”

I don’t know whether the prison service has taught Toshio Takata this lesson, but when I ask him if he is already planning his next crime, he denies it.

“No, actually this is it,” he says.

“I don’t want to do this again, and I will soon be 70 and I will be old and frail the next time. I won’t do that again.”

You may also be interested in:

Megumi was a baby when her parents separated and her father disappeared from her life. But years later her mother told her he wanted to reconnect. Megumi began to see Yamada regularly. She thinks he is her father, and that Yamada is his real name – but this is a lie.

Read: I hire a man to pretend to be my daughter’s dad – and she doesn’t know

Join the conversation – find us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter.

[artlessictoan]

ICTOAN’s Big ol’ Planned Fic Masterlist:

I’ve been meaning to do this for a while, but now’s as good a time as any, so; here’s a list of all the fics I’m currently working on and plan to write in the future! (I’ll keep this list updated any time I finish/start/think up something new and there’ll be a link to this page in my blog header)

I’m hoping that getting myself and other people excited for my planned fics will encourage me to crack on and finish my WIPs

Current WIPs:

Here are all the fics I am currently working on, I’m still trying to find a balance where I can update more regularly without sacrificing quality, I don’t know if I’d be able to work on more than 3-4 fics at a time, but I will probably be experimenting with having five or six on the go at some point – I do tend to get easily distracted and having more fics I can bounce between might actually be easier for me

Like Smoke into the Sand – 50% complete

Breaking the Cycle – N/A (no set plot or plan)

Nice to Meet You – N/A (oneshot collection)

The Fearful Unknown – 25% complete

Heliotropism – 20% complete (very rough guess)

False Starts – On hold until I figure out my.. Feelings on this one

(note that these are rough estimates and I have been known to extend a fic’s planned length by a couple of chapters before, so take these percentages with a grain of salt)

---

Planned Multi-Chap Fics:

My ideas for future fics (in order of when I will most likely start them), they’re mostly still in early stages of development and everything here can and probably will change by the time they actually come out

Next in the Gem AU –

·        Sequel(s) to ATFC

·        Pairings: NaruGaa, NaruHina, HinaGaa, NaruHinaGaa, SakuTema, SakuTemaTen, KakaIru, KankuKiba, InoShikaCho

·        Follows directly off of ATFC, the second act of the overarching LTL plot, will be similar to ATFC but more action and plot oriented

·        There will also be a third fic to follow, along with a few spin-off oneshots/collections

False Starts – 

·        Kase-san fic

·        Pairings: KaseYama, Aroace!Mikawa, maybe others

·        AU setting, the girls never met at school and thus led very different lives, Kase went on to become a star sprinter, but, with her entire life revolving around athletics, as she grows older and her star fades, she finds herself lacking motivation and teetering on the edge of depression, meanwhile Yamada has done exactly what was always expected of her, going to a local college, taking a course she liked but didn’t love and eventually becoming a teacher, never realising the option to follow her passion was even available

·        Story follows Kase as she’s forced into a long-term ‘vacation’ back to her hometown to rehabilitate and rediscover her drive, while there she meets Yamada and they strike up a friendship and eventual romance, helping each other find out what kind of life they really want to live and realising that it’s not too late to try

·         Mid-to-long fic, mostly fluffy, slice-of-life romance, but with exploration of things like depression and mid-life crises, the girls will be about 32-34 in this, possibly a little older

Liquor Bottles and Ukuleles –

·        Pairings: ChoGaa, ShikaTema, SakuKarui, InoTen, ex-LeeGaa, ex-ChoKarui, Aro!Kank

·        Long-ish fic, college AU, Chouji is a happy but lonely student, who has accepted that he’ll never meet ‘The One’, until his best friends shove a cute redhead in his direction, mostly a fluffy romance fic, though there will be some drama

·        Blind!Gaara

·        Lots of close friendships (InoShikaCho, ChoKarui, ChoOmoi, ChoKaruOmoi, InoTema, Sand Sibs)

College AU –

·        Pairings: NaruGaa, HinaMatsu, possible others

·        Short fic, each chap split into two sections, one following Naru/Gaa and one following Hina/Matsu, though they will sometimes intersect, both pairs will be getting equal billing, mostly a sweet and fluffy fic, it might (Might) have some smut (mIGHT)

Ghost Hunter AU –

·        Another series, made up of short stories following a particular character/pairing

·        Pairings: NaruGaa, SakuIno, KakaGai, TemaTen, HinaOmoiCho, ShikaShino, KankFuu, possible others

·        Each fic will be standalone, but will reference other fics in the series (first in series will likely be NaruGaa, then SakuIno), Team 7 are a gang of ghost hunters who travel the country dealing with paranormal activities, meeting all sorts of new people and strange situations along the way

YodoChou Fic –

·        Pairings: YodoChou, probable others

·        Canon-verse, next gen, I’m thinking this fic will be much more similar to the Naruto manga than my other fics with an action adventure story that has ninjas doing ninja stuff, though that doesn’t mean I’m not going to just ignore Everything that happens in Boruto, it’ll be more like the first few arcs of Naruto where the conflicts/stakes are relatively small scale and it’s more about the characters than any big world-shaking events

NaruGaa Gym AU –

·        Pairings: NaruGaa, SakuTema, probable others

·        Short fic, modern AU, Gaara is the sickly noodle boy who is roped into going to the gym with his big sis, where he meets the chipper, chubby gym-bunny Naruto, who peptalks him onto a treadmill and then laughs for ten hours when he Immediately trips over literally nothing and sprains his ankle (and then buys him a coffee to apologise), meanwhile Temari has managed to get into a weightlifting competition with buff lesbian Sakura and it all gets a bit out of hand

InoHina Modern AU – 

·        Pairings: InoHina, NaruHina (kinda), probable others

·        Based on this post

Post-college AU, Ino owns and runs a small boutique, when one day a shy, modest-looking woman comes in and starts browsing the more ‘scanty’ range, quickly picking up on her uncertainty and discomfort as she brings a miniskirt and low-cut tank top to the counter, Ino decides to help her get the guy she’s been mooning over for years (Naruto) by giving her a makeover that works with Hinata’s style, before realizing that she’s totally fallen for her somewhere along the way and now has no idea what to do about it

SakuKarui Modern AU – 

·        Continuation of this drabble

·        Pairings: SakuKarui, HinaTema, KankuShino, SaiFuu, Aro!Gaa, InoCho, NejiLee, OmoiNaru, possible others

Short fic, post-college, Karui is a struggling artist trying to make a living as a recent grad, Sakura is her loving, but delinquent, girlfriend, a med-school dropout, who somehow always manages to get into fights, both dealing with quarter life crises and trying to build a life together

Mythology AU – 

·        Pairings: TemaRui, SakuInoHina, Aro!Ten, KarinFuu, KurotsuFuu, KureKonan, Aro!Yugito, ShizuRin, KaruraKushiMei, ChiyoNade, possible others

·        Continuation of this drabble

Not entirely sure what I want to do for this, but I just really like the idea of exploring the ‘all the nart girls as goddesses of war’ idea somehow, will probably be a short drabble collection, each chap focusing on different characters/relationships, I’d like to keep this to only the girls (though some will be nb in this)

Hospital AU – 

·        Pairings: SakuTema, InoKarin, ChoGaa, KankuKiba, NaruHinaLee, Aro!Shika, ex-TemaTen, ex-NaruSaku

·        Continuation of this drabble

Short fic, real-world setting, most of the gang works at a hospital, centres on surgeon!Sakura and administrative manager!Temari’s mutual unrequited love, and the scheming of their friends who’re trying to get them both to realise how head-over-heels the other is for them, a fluffy comedy with some Sad

Sci-fi AU – 

·        Pairings: HinaMatsu, ShikaNaru, InoChoTema, LeeGaa, NejiTen, KibaRui, ShinoOmoi, KakaGai, AsuKure, Aro!Saku, Aro!Sasu

·        Continuation of this drabble

·        Long-ish fic, (light) sci-fi setting, a team of scientists from all fields is on a (likely one-way) expedition, hoping to push the boundaries of human knowledge and discover more about the galaxy and potential life outside the solar system (without disrupting it if at all possible, I’m really keen to try and keep any colonial themes out of this) sending any knowledge back to Earth to help humanity improve itself, while trapped on a ship with little to no hope of ever returning, the crew build new lives and relationships slowly develop, will probably be a slice-of-life fic with the space stuff just as a background

Will definitely have alien life, but I’m not sure if I want sentient aliens who’re as developed/more developed than humanity, I’d like to keep this to the more “realistic” end of the genre and the focus to be mainly on the crew and their friendships, but thoughts would be welcome!

Olympic Lesbian Shenanigans – ***

·         Pairings: uh, idk actually…… Every Girl x Every Other Girl?

·         Loosely based on Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

·         Short-mid length fic, modern au/period setting, a pair of girls (leaning towards Ino and Karin but could go any way at this point) end up on a multi-week cruise ship with the Konoha Ladies Olympic Team (which will somehow include any non-Konoha girls too)……. things get very Gay

·         Possibly smutty?

·         …Probably smutty

·         Purely me-pandering ngl

·         Oh god what am I doing

Spy AU –

·        Pairings: NaruGaa, InoTema, ShikaCho, HinaTen, NejiLee, possible others

·        Long fic, plot-focused action thriller, will likely end up exploring dark themes, but also I might change my mind and go for a more fun 70s spy-thriller type vibe (I’m thinking about making Gaa a trans woman in this one but I’m still kinda unsure? Feedback would be welcome)

Sand Sib Fic –

·        Possible implied NaruGaa and ShikaTema, but the focus will be on the sibs

·        Will probably be similar in style to BTC, following the sand sibs and their relationship as it changes over the years (not sure if I’ll go right from the beginning, or just from the chunin exam arc up to the end of the war arc), going into much more detail about their development since Kishi dgaf about them, especially Gaara’s struggle to change himself after the exams, how and why he got Suna to accept him, Kank and Tem and their very complex relationship with Gaara (and each other) and Gaara’s long recovery from.. y’know. death. I’ll probably diverge from canon in some places (like the Rasa/Gaa reunion during the war)

Samurai AU –

·        Pairings: NaruGaa, SakuHina, TemaTen, KibaIno, ChoKarui, possible others

·        Similar to SITS but more plot-focused, long fic, historical drama, set in Sengoku era Japan (or more likely a version of the Naruto world based heavily on it), no fantasy elements, might get dark in places, the story will mostly be focusing on Naruto, so it might be split into a series or have short spinoff fics focusing on other characters

Jinchuriki Fic –

·        No pairings planned thus far

·        Canon-divergent, after the chunin exams, instead of deciding to become Kazekage, Gaara instead wants to be for the other jinchuriki what Naruto was to him, follows the time-skip with Gaara traveling the continent and inadvertently starting a nomadic jinchuriki tribe, will probably be slice-of-life, though I might also just run with the idea and rewrite the whole Naruto plot based on this (and other) changes, for example:

·        Temari takes the position of Kazekage and her and Kankuro are taking steps to change their village for the better (they’re in regular contact with Gaara and constantly send letters to his new friends reminding them to make sure he eats)

·        Hinata and Neji are both much more active in their goal to destroy their clan’s caste system

·        Sasuke returns to Konoha earlier and him and the other rookies do their own investigating into their village’s long history of reprehensible actions

·        Cut the entire war arc. All of it.

·        Make the conflict less about big grand battles against ultimate evil mcbadguys and more about actually revolutionising the ninja world at its very core

Model AU –

·        Possible pairings: NaruGaa, probable others, it’s all very uncertain

·        ……. Look idk the idea just won’t leave me alone ok?

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Planned Oneshots:

(Same deal as my planned multi-chaps!)

Narugaa, based on this post, Naruto trips over at a train station one day and ends up cackling uncontrollably on the floor, even as a cute redhead helps him up, the next day a friend shows him a craigslist ad from someone who helped up a laughing man at the train station and was too shy to ask his name at the time but was hoping that he was alright

Narugaa, based on this post, Naruto lives in the same apartment building as The Most Beautiful Man In The World, unfortunately they only ever cross paths when Naruto happens to have horribly embarrassed himself in some way, meanwhile The Most Beautiful Man In The World has been quietly trying to find excuses to see his cute blond neighbor, who must be really confident to not care about that giant salsa stain down the front of his shirt and wow he wished he could be so free and self-assured

Temari-centric oneshot about her strict training and life growing up

InoShikaChoTema, ot4 fluff oneshot

 ---

If there’re any fics I’ve spoken about here that you’d really love to see, then do let me know! I can push the stories with more interest to the top of my agenda, keep in mind though, that I won’t be starting anything new until I’ve at least finished ATFC (possibly SITS too) and that my more ambitious fics will require a lot of pre-production before I’m willing to start them – I spent a good six months doing research for SITS – so fics like the spy au and the samurai au will need a lot more time to get started than, say, a college au

As always, I’m open to requests and if anyone has thoughts on anything I’ve already got planned that they’d like to share, then I’m open to chatting! Almost all of these fics (apart from everything in the LTL series) are still very early in development, so things can change a little, or a lot! I reserve the right to reject ideas that I don’t feel comfortable writing/don’t fit my vision, of course, but I’m pretty opened minded about this stuff, so don’t be afraid to gimme a shout

[randomrichards]

OSCAR 2019 PREDICTIONS: BEST ANIMATED SHORT

·         ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR

All the way from Canada is the National Film Board’s annual entry.

The film centres around a group therapy session of anthropomorphic animals, led by canine psychologist Dr. Leonard Clement (voiced by Ryan Bell). Things are coming along smoothly when in barges Victor the Gorilla (Taz Van Rassel). Right away, he makes it clear he doesn’t want to be there, and he makes it clear he as severe anger issues. Chaos ensues.

This short film seems to share resemblances to other Oscar Winners. The premise of animals talking of their problems may remind Claymation fans of Oscar winning short Creature Comforts. There are lots of animal gags like the ones in Zootopia. On top of all that, Writer/directors David Fine and Alison Snowden already won this award for their 1994 short film Bob’s Birthday.[1] Not to say they are the same. I just wanted to call attention to these films.

The most creative jokes blend animal traits with psychological issues with Lorraine the leech (Leah Juel) having attachment issues and mantis Cheryl (Andrea Libman) having trouble with long term commitments (“I have to say I got 1000 kids and that can be a real turn off for some”). Dr. Clement adds to the hilarity in his attempts to diffuse judgement (“Clearly sexual cannibalism is a taboo for some.”)

It should be noted, Fine and Snowden have a humor that blends dark and mundane. It might not be for everyone.

·         BAO

Before Incredibles 2, families were treated to first time director Domee Shi’s loving tribute to her mother.

A middle aged Chinese-Canadian was enjoying her Bao Buns when one comes to life and sprouts a body. With her husband at work, she decides to raise the dumpling like her son. The result is a montage of humorous moments, from feeding the Bao when its head flattens to it being attacked by a dog. But as the film progresses, the mother becomes protective of Bao, who in turn grows resentful of her. Soon, this short film reveals itself to be an allegory of Empty Nest Syndrome, leading to a heartbreaking climax many mothers can (or will) relate to.  

While this short comes from Pixar, it has some elements of Studio Ghibli and not just because the main characters are Asian. Like Ghibli films, the main characters just accept the fantastical elements of the premise without much questions. Plus, the simpler style resembles Isao Takahata’s film My Neighbor the Yamadas. Plus, you get a strong sense of the culture (in this case, the Chinese-American Culture). It’s especially true in the scenes of the mother cooking. Cooking scenes are almost always shot beautifully, that certainly true when you watch her make Bao Buns.

·         LATE AFTERNOON

All the way from Ireland comes a beautiful yet heartbreaking portrayal of an old woman struggling with dementia.

The short takes us into the memories of elderly Emily (voiced by Fionnula Flanagan) as she enjoys tea and biscuits provided by caregiver Kate (Niamh Moyles). We see her as a child enjoying a day at the beach, as a young woman racing for the train and as loving mother.

Writer/director Louise Bagnall uses a stylized approach to capture the experience of living with Alzheimer’s. Emily literally flows through her memories, swimming through strong currents that force her through one memory after another. In these currents, the memories start out as little balls of colours. From these currents, Bagnall creates one graceful transition after another. When Emily swims into an orange ball, the orange become the dress of Emily as a child. Another key detail is the fact Emily is the only character without a neck. I suppose it symbolizes how lost in her head she is.

This short is sure to break your heart. 

You can waltch this one on YouTube.

·         ONE SMALL STEP

Since she was a little girl, Luna Chu has dreamed of being an astronaut. Now she stands to achieve her dreams when attends the School of Astrophysics. But her struggles have only begun as she fails her classes and stumbles through gym. And yet through it all, her father is always there to fix her shoes and offer support. But through her struggles, she begins to distance herself from her father. What will it take for her to achieve her dream?

At the core of this short is the loving father-daughter relationship. Though a shoe maker, Luna’s father encourages her passion by giving her moon shoes and allowing her to take drawings of rockets on the walls. In one beautiful fantasy sequence, they ride on a box and soar through a solar system of cardboard planets and glow in the dark stars. But her studies take their toll on their relationship, as she grows more distant from him. And yet through it all, he’s always there to offer support.

For their directorial debut, Andrew Chesworth and Bobby Pontillas already demonstrate amazing skills with visual storytelling. With no dialogue, they reveal a lot of character through imagery. Nowhere is that clearer than in the montage in the kitchen. At first, Luna would stop for a quick bite with her father before she heads to school. But as the film progresses, she spends less time in the kitchen until she just leaves without eating, leaving him alone. I imagine we’ll be seeing more of Taiko Studios

·         WEEKENDS

This is a slice of life portrait of divorce told from the boy’s point of view. On the weekdays, he stays with his mother while she studies for Accounting. On the weekend, he stays at his father in Toronto, where they indulge in violent action movies and bad cooking. These two worlds couldn’t be more different. He and his mother are renovating a house in the middle of the woods. His father lives in an apartment surrounded by Samurai memorabilia. She practices piano. He blares Dire Straits’ “Money for Nothing” and plays Duck Hunt. What they do have in common is their love for their son. Now they both have a significant other in their lives.

Writer/Director Trevor Jimenez focuses on the little moments of the boy’s life. We see the routines he comes accustomed to including the raccoon always in his yard or the model horse the boy sleeps on when he’s at his Dad’s apartment. In between these routines, we journey into the boy’s dreams to find his true feelings. In one dream, he imagines clothes floating around his house. When he floats into a kitchen, he sees two bathrobes reenacting a routine morning.

Through his eyes, we can see a hint of the struggles his parents are going through, especially his mother’s attempt to balance her studies and taking care of her son. And yet, we also see the joys the boy has with his parents, painting the house with his mother and playing with samurai swords with his father.

The animation style resembles a children’s drawing (albeit a more detailed version). It works to pull you more into the child’s perspective.

Who Will Win?

As always, Pixar is the top choice for the award with Bao. Plus, it’s a beautiful portrait of motherhood, animated with the high quality expected of Pixar.

It’s hard to make a second choice with all of them being incredible. So, I’m going to make Late Afternoon the dark horse.

[1] Which led to the Canadian series Bob and Margaret.

[denimbex1986]

'If you're reading this through a haze of tears, you're not alone. Even mentioning All of Us Strangers is enough to make a person sob as if they’re watching Andrew Haigh's masterpiece again for the very first time. And that's rather fitting given the curious way this film plays with chronology. Whether it's the grief or queer trauma or a heady mix of the two that resonates with you most, All of Us Strangers is a story that will always be on your mind in some way, the kind that shifts how you perceive the world. But how you even perceive the film itself can also shift depending on different factors.

One thing that can be agreed on is that this loose yet touching adaptation of Strangers, a Japanese novel by Taichi Yamada, is essentially two love stories in one. At the centre is Adam (Andrew Scott), a forty-something gay scriptwriter who lives alone in an — almost — empty high-rise building in London. Haunted by the past, Adam revisits his childhood home only to discover the past has somehow come to life when his parents (played by Jamie Bell and Claire Foy) return exactly as they were before they died when Adam was just twelve years old.

As he reunites with these time-displaced figures, filling them in on decades lost, Adam also forms a new connection with a younger man named Harry (Paul Mescal). This intergenerational romance helps Adam heal after years of shame and worry. But then, in one gut-wrenching twist, it turns out that this second love story is a ghost story too, much like the first. Yet a great deal is still left unexplained.

What happens in All Of Us Strangers?

Adam lives alone in a largely deserted London tower block, until one evening, after a fire drill, a drunken Harry knocks upon his door. Terrified of intimacy, Adam rejects Harry the first time they meet, but everything changes once Adam starts visiting his long deceased parents in their old Sussex home. As his reality changes to accept the possibility of their return, Adam also changes his outlook on life, opening up to Harry's advances. The pair have sex, although Adam keeps the younger man at a distance still to start with.

In his next ghostly visit, Adam decides to come out to his mother, something he never had the chance to do before her death. She accepts him, although it's not easy for her because she's still part of the era where AIDS and queerness were inextricably linked in shameful, hateful ways. Upon returning home, Adam learns that Harry also feels distant from his family, an experience that unfortunately connects queer people even now across generations. Adam confronts this feeling head-on when he talks to his father next, who tearfully apologises for not stepping in and helping Adam deal with the bullying he faced for being gay at school.

Intimacy doesn't come easily for Adam, but through Harry's love and his parents' acceptance, happiness begins to take hold. That is, until everything unravels after Adam suffers a ketamine meltdown in a club with Harry, screaming out for his parents. Upon blacking out, Adam wakes up in his childhood house at Christmas where he puts on his old pyjamas (which are far too small now) and gets into his parents’ bed. While his father sleeps beside them, Adam and his mother share memories of their earlier lives and what happened after the accident too, but they're soon interrupted by Harry, who strangely appears where Adam's father was lying just moments before. Time bends again after that when Adam wakes up on a train and chases Harry, who's running away just out of reach. And with that, Adam awakens yet again, this time at home, with Harry explaining that he took them both back after the ketamine trip went bad.

Unsettled by what's been happening, Adam tells Harry more details about the accident that took his parents, revealing that his father died instantly while his mother lingered on for several days. This leads to Adam admitting the truth about his parents' return, that they're back now in some strange, otherworldly capacity. A troubled Harry agrees to visit Adam’s childhood home with him to check this out for himself. Upon arriving, Harry catches a glimpse of the ghosts through a backdoor window — and they see him too. Harry denies it, though, and flees, which leads to one final meeting between Adam and his parents at a diner they used to frequent back when they were all still alive together. There, they explain that Adam needs to let them go in order to move on and be happy. In turn, Adam helps them move on by telling them that they both died instantly in the accident, reassuring them that the fears that worried them since returning have been unfounded. In their last moments on this plane of existence, Adam's parents reaffirm their love for their son and then they vanish into the hereafter.

As if that goodbye at the diner wasn't devastating enough, Adam heads to Harry's flat after where he discovers Harry's dead body beside the bottle of whiskey he was carrying that first night at Adam's door, when he wasn't allowed in. Harry reappears to Adam wearing the same pink jumper from their very first — and perhaps only — encounter (more on that shortly). Together, they head to Adam's room and cuddle each other on his bed. A light shines between them, growing brighter and brighter as they recede into the darkness where more stars twinkle. "The Power of Love" by Frankie Goes To Hollywood plays over the scene and through the credits like a literal "force from above" while the tears inevitably pour one last time.

What does that final shot mean?

When Harry realises he's dead, the film could have easily ended on a tragic note, especially when he came to realise that no one found his body for quite some time, including his parents. It is a heartbreaking scene, that much can't be denied.

But Harry was found, ultimately, and by someone who knows him better and loves him more than anyone else ever could, including his family. Adam and Harry are family now, and their connection in the film's final moments is palpable beyond just a physical sense. As darkness comes and the camera pans out, the light that grows between them becomes one in a constellation of many in the night sky, a cosmic force that joins other souls seeking comfort. There's no more fear. There's only peace now in each other's arms.

Harry is able to move on because of Adam's love, much like how Adam was able to move on emotionally from his own trauma thanks to Harry. The love they share is strong enough to bridge the gap between life and death. It strengthens them and protects them both against the void. Without connections like this, we're just left adrift in the darkness, strangers lost to pain and loneliness. And that's true whether Adam's relationship with Harry was physical or spiritual, real or imagined.

So, Harry was dead all along?

No, not exactly. But Harry was certainly dead after we first met him in Adam's doorway. Reeling from that rejection, Harry returned to his flat and lost his life that very same evening. "I was so scared that night. I just needed to not be alone," Harry's ghost recalls at the end, which seems to confirm that his death is specifically connected to that initial encounter. It's no coincidence that he's wearing the same pink sweatshirt in death that we saw on him outside Adam's flat. On top of that, the empty bottle of whiskey next to his corpse is the same one Harry offered to Adam that fateful night. Plus, it's clearly been a while since Harry died, if the body's decomposition is anything to go by.

Going back even further, there are also other clues to support this that only become apparent on a rewatch. Why did we never see Harry's flat until those final moments? Why could Harry see Adam's parents through that window, and even more importantly, how could they see him back? These elements only make sense once you know the story's outcome, something which Haigh had to keep in mind knowing that Harry was already dead from so early on.

Was Adam dead all along as well?

If every character we meet in All of Us Strangers is dead, is it possible that Adam himself might also be no longer with the living? The bizarrely empty apartment building he resides in — a seeming first for London — could easily be the physical manifestation of purgatory, which would make that final scene even more poignant as he and Harry ascend to the afterlife after finding love with each other. Of course, that begs the question of how Adam might have died. Given the script's preoccupation with shame and how it's held him back in life, internalised homophobia could have perhaps led to Adam dying by suicide, thereby connecting his demise to the suffering Harry endured in the end as well. That's particularly bleak though, and it's purely speculative for that matter too.

The closest we might get to a possible answer with this reading could be directly tied to the building itself. At the very start of the film, a fire alarm goes off, so it's been suggested that a fire may have actually killed Adam that same day, trapping his spirit in a kind of limbo along with Harry. It would certainly explain why the building is practically empty throughout, not to mention the strange, ethereal atmosphere of that location.

Are the ghosts even real?

All of Us Strangers is two ghost stories in one, yet it's also possible that these supernatural visits are actually just a product of Adam's imagination. The film establishes early on that he's writing a script about his parents, looking to bridge the past and the present, so what if everything we experience is just imagined as part of this project? We don't actually see Adam's parents until after he opens a new document and types the words "EXT. SUBURBAN HOUSE 1987," which leads to that first visit back to his childhood home. The ghostly version of Harry we meet after the lift scene is also introduced via a shot of Adam at his laptop, although the writing itself is kept hidden from view this time around. Yet this doesn't quite explain why Adam seems unable to tell that Harry is a ghost, even though he instinctively understood that this was true of his parents. Whether these spirits are ghosts or imaginary figures, the truth that connects either reading is that Adam willed them into being through his loneliness and desperate yearning for connection.

It's not like Adam is the most reliable narrator. The ketamine sequence in particular is a testament to that, so even his personal viewpoint isn't grounded in an objective, factual reality.

In short, the film is what you make of it. In that respect, the scene where Adam asks his mother if her return is real speaks more to the essence of Haigh's writing than even the ending does, despite all the discussion it has inspired. Her response, "Does it feel real?", is all that truly matters. Whatever you make of Haigh's mercurial grip on time and space, it's the emotions the film provokes that will resonate still in years to come. And by "emotions", we mean endless sobbing.

Why did Haigh choose "The Power of Love" to end the film?

Narratively speaking, it made sense for Harry to request "The Power of Love" at the end. It's this very song that blared from the TV (via an old Top Of The Pops performance) when he first knocked on Adam's door. Harry even quoted the lyrics before Adam turned him away, saying "There’s vampires outside my door". Those "vampires" are the demons that plague Harry, of course, the ones that drove him to drink and drugs until he died because of them. It's no coincidence that Frankie Goes to Hollywood, one of the only out gay acts in the 80s, were chosen to soundtrack this moment. Throughout All of Us Strangers, Adam has been trying to let go of the suffering he endured during that decade specifically, learning to finally accept the literal power of love without fear of pain or dying due to AIDS. It's a song that would have likely meant a great deal to Adam in the 80s, just as it did for Haigh.

So in this moment, the record takes on a new meaning for them both, healing the gay kids inside them that didn't feel worthy of that love when they were young.

What happens in Taichi Yamada's original novel?

In some ways, Haigh's All of Us Strangers is quite similar to the source material that inspired it, a novel named "Strangers" that Japanese author Taichi Yamada released back in 1987. The pair share a number of familiar beats and story conceits, including aspects of the film's biggest twist, yet they're explored in wildly different ways, as befitting of a dream-like narrative such as this one that plays with time and space so loosely.

The original narrator is also a scriptwriter in his mid-forties who lost his parents at the age of 12, but Hideo Harada is recently divorced, so already, his loneliness is very different to the one Adam's endured for so long in Haigh's "remake". One night, a woman who lives in the same building shows up at Hideo's Tokyo flat, and just like Harry, she too is turned away. Following this encounter, Hideo returns to his old neighbourhood where he meets a couple who look remarkably like the parents he lost right before they died. Time and time again, he meets these pseudo-parents who go on to treat him like family, comforting Hideo who's desperate to make up for lost time in his childhood.

Meanwhile, a relationship develops between Hideo and Kei, the female tenant who knocked on his door earlier. It's through this connection, and in particular Kei's observations, that we realise Hideo's life force is being sapped away each time he visits the couple who resemble his parents. Or is it something else new in his life that's ageing him so rapidly? A final twist concerning Kei shifts the film into horror, but Haigh wisely avoids that cliché, unlike Obayashi Nobuhiko's previous movie adaptation from 1988, titled The Discarnates. Instead, the new Kei, aka. Harry is revealed to have been dead all along, which speaks more to the queer romance and heartbreak that takes precedence over supernatural scares in All of Us Strangers, because that's the story which is more personal to Haigh.'