She Is Me, I Am Her
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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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.
