Tokyo Nightfall

Tokyo is known across the world for its vibrant neon streets, bustling nightlife, and rich history. To young delivery driver Amenashi (Iori Abe), though, the city is full of sadness and loneliness. It’s a place where teenagers run away from home and get addicted to drugs, and where others simply disappear. Dissatisfied with his life and haunted by memories of his sister Anna (Utano Aoi), Amenashi quits his job and heads to a secret underground event where other lost souls have gathered to say goodbye to a world that they no longer feel part of. Written and directed by Yuto Shimizu, Tokyo Nightfall is a visually sublime meditation on life, memory, and friendship.

There’s an immediate sense of intimacy to the film as it opens with shaky, homemade footage filmed by Anna. Showing her riding on the subway and cigarettes littering the ground, the images enable viewers to glimpse the world through the eyes of a character who only exists in memory. The plot then cuts to Amenashi sombrely reflecting on lost youth and the time his sister saw a classmate leap from the eighth floor of their apartment building. He’s consumed by memories of his sister and childhood friends, Hattori (Taiga Hironaka) and Nozu (Kosuke Tanaka), who follow Amenashi to the party, worried for his safety. Although the constant flashbacks to the same collection of scenarios initially feel disjointed and repetitive, the more that’s unveiled, the deeper the insight into these characters becomes.

The four actors each give wonderfully nuanced and authentic performances. Abe effectively conveys the protagonist’s grief and self-hatred caused by blaming himself for Anna’s death. Aoi is equally wonderful here. Scenes where she asks the group about their happiest and saddest moments in life subtly hint at her macabre outlook, with Nozu even commenting that the questions feel like a suicide note. When the pivotal party begins, the ensuing death is depicted as a mass tragedy rather than a grisly spectacle. While some partygoers embrace the finality, to others it’s terrifying and even random.

Although Shimizu’s latest feature taps into distinctly Japanese social issues, the urban horror of isolation that it depicts is something that’s universal. At its core, Tokyo Nightfall is a film about a group of misfits trying to find meaning in a world that seems impossibly indifferent to them.