• World Premiere

Competition

People Who Talk to Plushies Are Kind

ぬいぐるみとしゃべる人はやさしい

Director: KANEKO Yurina (金子由里奈)

2023｜Japan｜109min｜Language: Japanese｜Subtitles: English

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Starring

HOSODA Kanata (細田佳央太)
KOMAI Ren (駒井蓮)
SHINTANI Yuzumi (新谷ゆづみ)
HOSOKAWA Gaku (細川岳)
MAO (真魚)

Synopsis

Creating a portrait of sensitive teens and their concerns, KANEKO Yurina’s adaptation of OMAE Ao’s novel takes us into the midst of the Plushy Club at a university. It is a place packed with furry and comforting friends whom the club members talk to in order to relay their anxieties and fears. Male student NANAMORI and female students SHIRAKI, and MUGITO are the latest club intake, each wrestling with issues such as love, masculinity and femininity, fear of others and sexism in society. Trusting her actors, KANEKO uses long takes and gentle pacing to allow her talented cast to unpack big themes in naturalistic ways while expressive lighting and animation relays what it is like to be in conversation with a plushy. The kindness of the club members desire and exhibit is most keenly felt by the end.

[Jason MAHER]

• Competition
• Bad Education
• Day Off
• December
• Hong Kong Family
• Is This Heaven?
• Like & Share
• Max, Min and Meowzaki
• A Room of My Own
• The Sunny Side of the Street
• Tora's Husband
• Where Love Goes
• You & Me & Me
• People Who Talk to Plushies Are Kind
• The Narrow Road