Look Back

A girl who draws a strip for her primary school paper discovers that a pupil who never comes to class draws better. Years later the two begin making manga together. The film's subject is drawing itself: sitting down at the desk, working alone for hours, what it feels like to see someone else's work. The narrative takes a hard turn midway and, in its last section, sets what actually happened beside what might have. Kiyotaka Oshiyama directed, adapting Tatsuki Fujimoto's short manga. It runs under an hour and consists almost entirely of two characters. Before watching: the second half contains a sudden and violent loss, widely discussed in connection with a real attack on an animation studio. It is short, and it is heavy.