Control Tower

A small town in Hokkaido. The winter is long and the snow does not leave the ground. Kakeru is at high school; he moved from Tokyo, speaks to nobody at the new school and makes music. Mizuki is at the same school; she is shut out by her class and tells nobody what is wrong. One day they meet and find something in common: music. They begin making a track together. They tell nobody. Nothing changes at school and the life outside presses on both of them. Takahiro Miki directs. Kento Yamazaki plays Kakeru and Ai Hashimoto plays Mizuki. The film is one of the youth dramas common in Japan and Miki has made many in the genre. The setting matters; the Hokkaido winter is used as emptiness and silence, and the characters' condition is described through it. Music is at the centre and the songs are produced inside the film; the recording scenes are shown directly. The narrative does not soften the exclusion at school and offers no solution. Kento Yamazaki and Ai Hashimoto were among the names coming forward in their generation at the time. Its limit is structure; the narrative follows the expected stages of the genre and the ending is left uncertain. Who it is for: viewers who like Japanese youth drama and narratives grounded in music. Who it is not for: the pace is very slow, little happens, and the emotional register is suppressed.