Film details
- Director
- Tomoka Tabata
- Country
- Japan
- Duration
- 19 min
- Language
- Japanese
- Writer
- Tomoka Tabata
- Producer
- Yusuke Takahashi
- Cast
- Yaeko Kiyose, Joseph Owen
Director’s statement
This film was made as a way of freeing myself from the emotions I carried after moving to Tokyo while still struggling to let go of a former fiancé. It grew out of my own experience of feeling increasingly anxious about marriage and having children, even as I prioritized my career.
Living communally in a share house with around 70 residents, I found myself both bewildered by the closeness of other people and gradually relieved by the sense of letting my guard down. I wanted to portray a person who becomes obsessed with finding a new partner in an attempt to escape the memories of a past relationship. Blending horror and drama with subtle touches of comedy, the film explores the unease, absurdity, and vulnerability of that pursuit.
Synopsis
Mahiro (32), anxious about losing her eggs, forms relationships with the men in her share house through egg dishes. But as she becomes aware of their strange dreams and her own growing obsession, she begins to confront herself.
Tomoka Tabata
Director
After working for a video streaming company, she completed a master’s degree at the Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies, Kyoto University. She conducted fieldwork in Zambia and, during the COVID-19 pandemic, worked at the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), where she was involved in producing videos introducing Japan and implementing a remote training system. At the same time, she studied filmmaking at New Cinema Workshop, a film school in Tokyo.
She later worked as a United Nations Volunteer with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Uganda, where she was responsible for a cash transfer program. After returning to Japan, she continued making films while working for a consulting firm, and has directed two films to date. This is her third film.