By John Serba @johnserba Jan 31, 2020 at 6:00pm
37 Seconds Official Trailer
WHERE TO STREAM:
37 SECONDS
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Netflix movie 37 Seconds is a rarity — it focuses on a young woman with cerebral palsy played by an actor with the same condition. Mei Kayama stars in the feature-length debut by writer/director Hikari, who faces the challenge of telling a story driven by character, and not just driven by the disability. (Hint: She succeeds.)
37 SECONDS: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
The Gist: Yuma (Kayama, in her acting debut) is 23 years old, and mostly confined to a wheelchair. In the film’s opening moments, her mother Kyoko (Misuzu Kanno) helps her into the house, out of her wheelchair, out of her clothes and into the bathtub. She bathes her daughter, then climbs in with her. You’d think Yuma is wholly codependent on her mother. You’d think. But as the movie continues, we realize Yuma is capable of significant self-care. She moves slowly, but what needs to get done gets done. And whether Kyoko realizes it or not, she’s infantilizing her daughter, in classic hyper-overprotective hover-mom form.
There’s another source of dissatisfaction in Yuma’s life: Her job. She works for Sayaka (Minori Hagiwara), a YouTube star, ghostwriting and drawing her manga comics. Yuma is a skilled artist. She gives some of her own work to an editor, who says she mimics “Sayaka’s style” too much. Yes. Ouch. Sayaka is more than happy to exploit her friend’s talent, and treat her like The Help. Yuma drops in at Sayaka’s book signing, and the star of the show pretends her primary support pillar doesn’t exist.
Fed up, Yuma goes out on a limb and submits some racy work to an erotica publisher — her story is about a G-stringed (or is that G-strung?) space alien lady who arrives on Earth in search of some DNA. The editor is receptive, but firmly critical: The sex scenes aren’t convincing. “Have you done it?” she asks? “No,” Yuma replies, a little sheepish, a little matter-of-fact. So her next step is to… well, explore herself. She goes on dates (not great), visits the red-light district (no spoilers!), does a little dildo shopping (as you do), etc. She finds friends and sympathetic ears in Mai (Makiko Watanabe), a generous woman who’s also a sex worker, and Yoshi (Shinsuke Daito), a caretaker for the disabled. Her journey of self-discovery takes her down a few surprising paths. And how does Kyoko take all this — at least what she knows about it? Not well, my friends. Not well.
What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: The criminally underrated comedy/drama The Sessions starred the criminally underrated John Hawkes as a disabled man who hires a sex surrogate, played by Helen Hunt (who isn’t criminally underrated, because the role nabbed her an Oscar nom), so he finally can lose his virginity. Is the non-disabled Hawkes playing a disabled man problematic? I don’t know. Did the movie make me cry anyway? Yes.
Performance Worth Watching: With the right director and script, first-timers and non-actors can be extraordinary, and Kayama is exactly that. She’s a natural, and isn’t burdened by affectation. The character is written and performed with great empathy — and more than a little grit.
Memorable Dialogue: Sayaka gets some advice from her manager that’ll angry up your blood: “Why don’t you go public with her? If they knew you had a disabled assistant, you’d be more popular.”
Sex and Skin: Bathtub nudity; a sequence in a red-light-district hotel room gets a little funky, for lack of a better word.
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Our Take: Hikari’s plotting can be self-consciously literary — she includes a soapy third-act twist that functions better as symbolic flourish than plausible development — and Sayaka feels more like a type than a fully formed character. But 37 Seconds is overall a winning character study about a woman coming of age way later than she probably should. Yuma fumbles her way through awkward encounters and embarrassing moments, and the film asserts her sexual exploration in a manner that challenges us, lightly for the most part, to be empathetic. It’s hard not to be.
Many might not want to think about the daily challenges of people with cerebral palsy, but this is the type of material Hakari and Kayama handle with equal parts realism and dignity. We get a strong sense of Yuma’s daily grind, and a stronger sense of her aspirations. (“I was born with cerebral palsy, but I have no problem drawing,” she says simply.) Hakari nurtures complexity in Yuma’s relationship with her mother, which is tangled with ideas about how independent one person can be, regardless of their challenges. Yuma’s journey never fails to be thoughtful and compelling. Sometimes, you have to climb out on a limb until it breaks. Sometimes, you have to venture far to discover what’s within.
Our Call: STREAM IT. Open your hearts and let Yuma in.
This is about the Japanese movie, 37 Seconds, that is currently on Netflix.
There are a few spoilers in this review.
My friend Mellanie sent me a message the other day, asking if I’d ever seen 37 Seconds.
I scuttled over and watched it, pronto.
Here’s the preview:
37 Seconds
Movies that truly to seem to get the disability experience are few and far between.
Even more rare are movies that get it AND are not white.
Nothing against white stuff, but we need more than salt to make a good stew, and our stews have been waaaaay too salty for most of our lives.
37 Seconds is a Japanese movie – like, in Japanese, Japanese.
The Netflix description says that it’s about,
Trapped by society and familial obligations, a young manga artist goes on an unconventional journey for sexual freedom and personal liberation
But really, it’s so much more.
What 37 Seconds is REALLY About
It’s the story of a young woman who has Cerebral Palsy, and of her adventures in creating independence for herself, and figuring out her life and her path.
This movie is by turns intense, hilarious, heartbreaking, exquisitely portrayed. The acting is phenomenal.
I understand Japanese well enough to follow the movie without translations. This was helpful for me, in more deeply understanding the tone and nuances of the dialogues, as well as some of the cultural layers.
One thing on a personal note that I loved was that I had wondered some things about disability and access after leaving Japan.
You see, in the 5 years that I lived there, I never “came out” with disability.
I was trying to pass the entire time. I think being in a cultural space where no-one quite expects you to understand anything, coupled with the intense tuning in there to non-verbal communication and the freaky fact that I seem to hear Japanese better than I hear English meant that “passing” there wasn’t the overwhelming struggle that it was for me upon returning to the United States.
I wondered a lot about Japanese disability access after I “came out,” because I had not really ever paid much attention to it when I lived there.
37 Seconds shows many snippets of disability access – from the train conductor laying down a portable ramp to seating on the train, elevators in the love hotel (- the love hotel! Oh my God, that was so good!!).
There is a subtle thread throughout the movie, always showing a snippet or two of something related to access, conveying an aspect of the story through those threads.
Some Parts of the Movie Are Going to Make Some People Uncomfortable
There is a naked scene right off the bat in the movie, but only that one. With Netflix’s emphasis on this being a story of “sexual freedom and personal liberation,” I was kind of wondering with the opening scenes if the whole movie was going to be about all kinds of naked-ness.
It’s not (like, dripping with naked-ness), and I think that what IS in there is SO. WELL. CHOSEN.
It’s so well chosen, because it’s so in line with Japanese culture, and what’s “normal” there. This movie was not made or played by white actors from LA, and it does not follow European-American cultural norms. That is going to upset some folks. Probably not you though!
Some Parts of The Movie Make No Sense
Yes, the story line swings through some far-fetched arcs (- like, really? She just happened to have her passport on her, and he could come too?!).
Driving around Tokyo (a city of 24 MILLION people, that can literally take you 4 hours in a train to pass from one end to another), and just happening about her neighborhood, as well as some of the money pieces also left me a little incredulous, but I shrugged.
I figured that’s the beauty of a story, right?
Not everything has to be like it is in “real-life,” not everything in the details need to line up and make sense according to my idea of what is possible.
The heart of 37 Seconds contains so much.
There is independence. Yearning. Talent.
There is power, poetry in the silences.
This movie is all of disability, life, longing, courage, secrets, silence, spaces, access, fear, love, and forgiving.
37 Seconds is like a gorgeous bowl of ramen, deeply satisfying and nourishing.
It also leaves you full for a long, long time after finishing it.
Many might not want to think about the daily challenges of people with cerebral palsy, but this is the type of material Hakari and Kayama handle with equal parts realism and dignity. We get a strong sense of Yuma’s daily grind, and a stronger sense of her aspirations. (“I was born with cerebral palsy, but I have no problem drawing,” she says simply.) Hakari nurtures complexity in Yuma’s relationship with her mother, which is tangled with ideas about how independent one person can be, regardless of their challenges. Yuma’s journey never fails to be thoughtful and compelling. Sometimes, you have to climb out on a limb until it breaks. Sometimes, you have to venture far to discover what’s within.
Our Call: STREAM IT. Open your hearts and let Yuma in.
=====
https://variety.com/2020/film/reviews/37-seconds-review-1203488025/
’37 Seconds’: Film Review
An aspiring manga artist with cerebral palsy seeks liberation — and sexual experience — in Hikari's stereotype-defying drama.
By Lisa Kennedy
Plus Icon
Netflix
The Japanese film “37 Seconds” is deceptively delicate and quietly tough. Not unlike its protagonist. We first glimpse Yuma as she rides a crowded commuter train in Tokyo. From the camera’s angle, you might think she’s a kid. Her face is tentative, youthful. She’s shorter than the people around her because she’s in a wheelchair. She has cerebral palsy — as does Mae Kayama, the actress who portrays her — and she has been the sole concern of her mother since her father left, shortly after her birth.
Writer-director Hikari’s first feature won two prizes in the Panorama section of the Berlin Film Festival last February, followed by an international festival run. Americans can find it on Netflix. Well-paced, artfully shot and edited, “37 Seconds” mixes anime and illustration with live-action to tell the story of the 23-year-old aspiring artist seeking liberation. Yuma ghost writes friend Sayaka’s manga comics. This questionable bestie is all too happy taking credit for Yuma’s labor.
When it becomes clear Sayaka is going to stand in the way of her achieving any artistic success on her own, Yuma applies for a job as an artist at a manga publishing house that prints erotica. The publisher (played by Japanese actor-newscaster Yuka Itaya) tells her that she needs to have sex to really create convincing adult manga. She sets Yuma on a course for, well, intercourse. That it’s a vexed and sweet adventure is part of what makes “37 Seconds” insightful.
Desire is one of the things that makes us human. Too often people with disabilities are treated on screen as if they are asexual. Like the Sundance hit doc “Crip Camp” (also Netflix), “37 Seconds” challenges that.
While 23 may sound a little old to be coming of age, for a young woman infantilized by her mother, the timing makes sense. But how to meet that special — or not — someone? Some furtive attempts at dating find her guiding her wheelchair into the red-light district. She has a close encounter with a rent boy, only to have it end with both of them apologizing.
Makiko Watanabe exudes an easy charm as Mai, the practiced, personable sex worker who befriends Yuma. Actor and disability advocate Yoshihiko Kumashino (who has cerebral palsy) plays her best client. The actor founded a not-for-profit organization that deals with sexuality and disability. As his character wheels Mai through streets populated with sex toy shops, drag bars and karaoke clubs, he looks to be having a ball. And so does Yuma, who finds a tentative liberation in the company of Mai and her driver Toshiya (Shunsuke Daito).
Japan lags behind the U.S. in acknowledging the lives of its citizens with disabilities. Yuma’s initial isolation reflects the situation. A social worker, Kayama is a find. Yuma’s soft-as-a-whisper voice makes her seem more childlike than she actually is, and Kumashino’s day job as an advocate suggests changes are brewing.
The more liberated Yuma becomes, the more her mother puts her on lockdown. When she escapes — speeding out of a clinic — her frantic mom wants to file a missing person report. “She can’t even raise her voice to cry for help!” she shouts at the policeman. The irony of her yelling isn’t lost on him — or us.
Misuzu Kanno strikes a difficult balance as Yuma’s hovering mother. She must be overbearing enough that she’s nearly impossible to sympathize with. But she has to leave room for us to understand, to forgive. After an ugly scene in which mother and daughter say surgically cutting things to the each other, it’s hard to imagine the two reconciling.
Yuma’s adventure leads her further away from home than she ever imagined. “You’ve taken a big step. You better not f— it up,” Mai tells her after she pulls off her 5 mph escape. Sometimes fleeing is the only way back.
https://variety.com/2020/film/reviews/37-seconds-review-1203488025/
’37 Seconds’: Film Review
An aspiring manga artist with cerebral palsy seeks liberation — and sexual experience — in Hikari's stereotype-defying drama.
By Lisa Kennedy
Plus Icon
NetflixThe Japanese film “37 Seconds” is deceptively delicate and quietly tough. Not unlike its protagonist. We first glimpse Yuma as she rides a crowded commuter train in Tokyo. From the camera’s angle, you might think she’s a kid. Her face is tentative, youthful. She’s shorter than the people around her because she’s in a wheelchair. She has cerebral palsy — as does Mae Kayama, the actress who portrays her — and she has been the sole concern of her mother since her father left, shortly after her birth.
Writer-director Hikari’s first feature won two prizes in the Panorama section of the Berlin Film Festival last February, followed by an international festival run. Americans can find it on Netflix. Well-paced, artfully shot and edited, “37 Seconds” mixes anime and illustration with live-action to tell the story of the 23-year-old aspiring artist seeking liberation. Yuma ghost writes friend Sayaka’s manga comics. This questionable bestie is all too happy taking credit for Yuma’s labor.
When it becomes clear Sayaka is going to stand in the way of her achieving any artistic success on her own, Yuma applies for a job as an artist at a manga publishing house that prints erotica. The publisher (played by Japanese actor-newscaster Yuka Itaya) tells her that she needs to have sex to really create convincing adult manga. She sets Yuma on a course for, well, intercourse. That it’s a vexed and sweet adventure is part of what makes “37 Seconds” insightful.
Desire is one of the things that makes us human. Too often people with disabilities are treated on screen as if they are asexual. Like the Sundance hit doc “Crip Camp” (also Netflix), “37 Seconds” challenges that.
While 23 may sound a little old to be coming of age, for a young woman infantilized by her mother, the timing makes sense. But how to meet that special — or not — someone? Some furtive attempts at dating find her guiding her wheelchair into the red-light district. She has a close encounter with a rent boy, only to have it end with both of them apologizing.
Makiko Watanabe exudes an easy charm as Mai, the practiced, personable sex worker who befriends Yuma. Actor and disability advocate Yoshihiko Kumashino (who has cerebral palsy) plays her best client. The actor founded a not-for-profit organization that deals with sexuality and disability. As his character wheels Mai through streets populated with sex toy shops, drag bars and karaoke clubs, he looks to be having a ball. And so does Yuma, who finds a tentative liberation in the company of Mai and her driver Toshiya (Shunsuke Daito).
Japan lags behind the U.S. in acknowledging the lives of its citizens with disabilities. Yuma’s initial isolation reflects the situation. A social worker, Kayama is a find. Yuma’s soft-as-a-whisper voice makes her seem more childlike than she actually is, and Kumashino’s day job as an advocate suggests changes are brewing.
The more liberated Yuma becomes, the more her mother puts her on lockdown. When she escapes — speeding out of a clinic — her frantic mom wants to file a missing person report. “She can’t even raise her voice to cry for help!” she shouts at the policeman. The irony of her yelling isn’t lost on him — or us.
Misuzu Kanno strikes a difficult balance as Yuma’s hovering mother. She must be overbearing enough that she’s nearly impossible to sympathize with. But she has to leave room for us to understand, to forgive. After an ugly scene in which mother and daughter say surgically cutting things to the each other, it’s hard to imagine the two reconciling.
Yuma’s adventure leads her further away from home than she ever imagined. “You’ve taken a big step. You better not f— it up,” Mai tells her after she pulls off her 5 mph escape. Sometimes fleeing is the only way back.
====
“37 Seconds” Came Busting Out of Japan and Knocked Me Over
“37 Seconds” Came Busting Out of Japan and Knocked Me Over
This is about the Japanese movie, 37 Seconds, that is currently on Netflix.
There are a few spoilers in this review.
My friend Mellanie sent me a message the other day, asking if I’d ever seen 37 Seconds.
I scuttled over and watched it, pronto.
Here’s the preview:
37 Seconds
Movies that truly to seem to get the disability experience are few and far between.
Even more rare are movies that get it AND are not white.
Nothing against white stuff, but we need more than salt to make a good stew, and our stews have been waaaaay too salty for most of our lives.
37 Seconds is a Japanese movie – like, in Japanese, Japanese.
The Netflix description says that it’s about,
Trapped by society and familial obligations, a young manga artist goes on an unconventional journey for sexual freedom and personal liberation
But really, it’s so much more.
What 37 Seconds is REALLY About
It’s the story of a young woman who has Cerebral Palsy, and of her adventures in creating independence for herself, and figuring out her life and her path.
This movie is by turns intense, hilarious, heartbreaking, exquisitely portrayed. The acting is phenomenal.
I understand Japanese well enough to follow the movie without translations. This was helpful for me, in more deeply understanding the tone and nuances of the dialogues, as well as some of the cultural layers.
One thing on a personal note that I loved was that I had wondered some things about disability and access after leaving Japan.
You see, in the 5 years that I lived there, I never “came out” with disability.
I was trying to pass the entire time. I think being in a cultural space where no-one quite expects you to understand anything, coupled with the intense tuning in there to non-verbal communication and the freaky fact that I seem to hear Japanese better than I hear English meant that “passing” there wasn’t the overwhelming struggle that it was for me upon returning to the United States.
I wondered a lot about Japanese disability access after I “came out,” because I had not really ever paid much attention to it when I lived there.
37 Seconds shows many snippets of disability access – from the train conductor laying down a portable ramp to seating on the train, elevators in the love hotel (- the love hotel! Oh my God, that was so good!!).
There is a subtle thread throughout the movie, always showing a snippet or two of something related to access, conveying an aspect of the story through those threads.
Some Parts of the Movie Are Going to Make Some People Uncomfortable
There is a naked scene right off the bat in the movie, but only that one. With Netflix’s emphasis on this being a story of “sexual freedom and personal liberation,” I was kind of wondering with the opening scenes if the whole movie was going to be about all kinds of naked-ness.
It’s not (like, dripping with naked-ness), and I think that what IS in there is SO. WELL. CHOSEN.
It’s so well chosen, because it’s so in line with Japanese culture, and what’s “normal” there. This movie was not made or played by white actors from LA, and it does not follow European-American cultural norms. That is going to upset some folks. Probably not you though!
Some Parts of The Movie Make No Sense
Yes, the story line swings through some far-fetched arcs (- like, really? She just happened to have her passport on her, and he could come too?!).
Driving around Tokyo (a city of 24 MILLION people, that can literally take you 4 hours in a train to pass from one end to another), and just happening about her neighborhood, as well as some of the money pieces also left me a little incredulous, but I shrugged.
I figured that’s the beauty of a story, right?
Not everything has to be like it is in “real-life,” not everything in the details need to line up and make sense according to my idea of what is possible.
The heart of 37 Seconds contains so much.
There is independence. Yearning. Talent.
There is power, poetry in the silences.
This movie is all of disability, life, longing, courage, secrets, silence, spaces, access, fear, love, and forgiving.
37 Seconds is like a gorgeous bowl of ramen, deeply satisfying and nourishing.
It also leaves you full for a long, long time after finishing it.
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