It's Only Talk
やわらかい生活
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
A woman with bipolar disorder in Kamata and the four men who pass through her rooms.
Yuko Tachibana is thirty-five and has moved to Kamata, in the south of Tokyo, where she photographs the shopping streets and the Godzilla built of old tyres in the park, eats gyoza with beer and ends her days at an old public bath. She has manic depression. Since her parents died she has been in and out of hospital, and she lives on their insurance money. The men who pass through her life are each damaged in their own way.
Homma, a university classmate going into politics, recognises her during a street speech; he admits he is impotent, and their night together ends awkwardly. K, a man she met through a dating site, plays a game with her in which he gropes her in a cinema; later she sees him cycling with his child. A timid, depressed young yakuza, Yasuda, writes to her blog asking to see the tyre Godzilla; he carries an empty cartridge and says a gangster can die whenever he likes. To an old friend who declares his love she recites her losses, parents in the Kobe earthquake, a friend in the World Trade Center, a boyfriend in the sarin attack, and walks away.
At her parents' memorial service she meets her cousin Shoichi, who drives a blue classic car and plays her love songs on cassette. His business and his marriage have failed, and one night he turns up at her flat with nowhere to go. At the races she wins big and feels herself tipping into mania, then sinks into depression. Shoichi nurses her, reads books about her illness and washes her hair. When she recovers he asks why she lies about the earthquake. Her parents died in a fire, she tells him, and afterwards she hurt herself; she shows him the scars. After an evening at a food stall he says he will go home, and they kiss and part. Yasuda says goodbye; he has a job to do, and after it, prison. Then her uncle calls. Shoichi is dead, his car gone into the sea after a night's drinking. Alone again, Yuko sits in the bath and seems to hear him calling her name.
Starring
Shinobu Terajimaas Yuko Tachibana
A 35-year-old living alone in Kamata with manic depression, on her parents' insurance money, among men as lost as she is.
Yuko Tachibana’s story
Yuko has moved to Kamata because it strikes her as strange: she photographs the tyre Godzilla, eats gyoza with beer, and bathes last at the public bath because of a tattoo from her youth. She spends an awkward night with Homma, plays a groping game in a cinema with K, befriends the gangster Yasuda, and tells an old admirer that her parents, friend and boyfriend died in famous disasters. When her cousin Shoichi turns up with nowhere to go, she lets him stay, and he nurses her through a depression. Recovered, she admits that her parents died in a fire and shows him the scars of what she did to herself afterwards. They part with a kiss. When word comes that he is dead, she is alone again in the bath, seeming to hear him call her name.
Etsushi Toyokawaas Shoichi Tachibana
Yuko's cousin, whose business and marriage have failed, who turns up at her flat and nurses her through her depression.
Shoichi Tachibana’s story
Shoichi is married back home, his business failing and his marriage reduced to separate lives under one roof. At Yuko's parents' memorial he drives her in his blue classic car and plays her love songs on a cassette. Soon he turns up at her flat with nowhere else to go and says it has been a long time since anyone told him good night. When she sinks into depression, he reads up on her illness, photographs the streets with her camera and washes her hair; when she lashes out, he storms off, then comes back with goldfish. He asks why she lies about the earthquake. After an evening at a food stall he says he will go home, and they kiss and part. Soon after, his car goes into the sea after a night's drinking, and he dies.
Shunsuke Matsuokaas Homma
A university classmate going into politics, who spots Yuko during a street speech and confides that he is impotent.
Tomorowo Taguchias K
A man Yuko met through a dating site, who plays a groping game with her in a cinema.
Satoshi Tsumabukias Noboru Yasuda
A depressed young gangster who writes to Yuko's blog and carries an empty cartridge in his pocket.
Why it matters
It's Only Talk lets a woman with bipolar disorder be the centre of her own story rather than a problem in someone else's. Yuko's illness is part of her life, like the public bath, the camera and the men who come and go: she is funny, frank about sex, sometimes cruel, and very tired. The film's sharpest idea is her borrowed grief. She explains her breakdown with the great disasters of her generation, Kobe, the sarin attack, the World Trade Center, because, she says, they make it easier for others to understand than the truth, a house fire and what she did to herself afterwards. Ryuichi Hiroki, working from Akiko Itoyama's prize-winning first novel, gives each of the damaged men the same patience. The ending takes away the one person who stayed long enough to learn how to look after her, and leaves her in the bath, listening.