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She Is Me, I Am Her

2022

A socially-distanced college reunion, an unlikely friendship forged through a food delivery service, a bus-stop encounter, and a blind woman confronting a scammer. Mayu Nakamura’s unique anthology set in pandemic-era Tokyo explores the yearning for connection in a world marked by loneliness. Tied together by the remarkable performances by Nahana, embodying various female characters across different narratives, the film weaves a tapestry of human experience, offering glimpses of hope and the possibility of new beginnings in the unlikeliest of circumstances.
( 70 min. )
Available Worldwide excluding Japan


▷About the Filmmaker - Learn more about the director Mayu Nakamura
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Director

Mayu Nakamura

Language

Japanese with English subtitles

Director's Note

In November 2020, a sixty-year-old homeless woman was battered to death at a bus stop in Tokyo. She became homeless after losing her job due to the COVID crisis. The incident sparked outcries from many women who have unsteady jobs, they went on marches, saying “She is me, I am her!”, protesting the self-reliance policy of the current government. Since the COVID crisis started, I have been thinking about loneliness and people’s desire for connection and tried to portray those feelings in my films. I was deeply concerned about how this crisis hit many women severely. By having one brilliant, mercurial actress, Nahana play the roles of various women, I try to portray how many women share these sentiments in different circumstances.

directors-note-image
Asian Pop-Up Cinema
Udine Far East Film Festival
Japan Cuts
Skip City International D-Cinema Festival

Nakamura perfectly played all her cards to convey a meaningful and believable story about an emerging historical moment that is still affecting society on a global scale. While doing so, she puts women, here as unconventional characters in their society, under the spotlight. // ...a piece of work which manages to get straight to the point without denying itself of metaphors and symbolism.

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Thanks to strong and varied central performances from Nahana and nice thematic continuity, “She is Me, I am her” succeeds as an anthology. Aside from the occasional and successful dabble with surreal imagery, Mayu Nakamura displays restraint in both her narrative and directorial approach, resulting in four visually coherent and emotionally affecting short films.

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Bonus Content

DIRECTOR'S COMMENTARY [Exclusively available with rental/purchase]

10m

The director Mayu Nakamura talks about her background as a documentarian, and how that helped her write a segment “Ms. Ghost”.