In the Cellar

The lyrics of the song (haiku) in the movie are as follows: “mayfly just lives outside the grave.”The film tells the story of brother and sister who are locked in a warehouse and awaiting death. The two are bizarrely entangled in a narrow space, and once again, they are entangled with the outside world through a long telescope.Life, death, love and hate, all emotions are contained in that warehouse. It is a thriller film with a elaborately constructed story that the fact made in 1981 is unbelievable .The scene in the movie is like a magnified view of mayfly, Exaggeratedly zoomed-in scenes show peoples and objects. Above all, the sound of traditional Japanese music is bizarre and sad, leads the whole movie.After watching the movie, you will be engulfed in a strange feeling that you cannot tell whether this is a fantasy or a fact. It feels as if my life has passed in the warehouse. Now, wasn’t I also watching a movie on a small screen in a small room? My room is also a small warehouse, and I will die also temporarily not far from here.It was a lonely and beautiful movie just like the lyrics of a haiku. This is by far the best film directed by Yôichi Takabayash.