Birds Without Names
彼女がその名を知らない鳥たち
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
A woman lives off a man she despises while chasing the lover who left her — attachment at its ugliest.
Towako Kitahara does not work. She lives off Jinji Sano, a construction worker fifteen years older, whom she finds crude and dirty and treats with open contempt. He cooks for her, gives her massages, hands her spending money and rings her many times a day. She spends her afternoons watching old videos of dates with Shunichi Kurosaki, the lover who left her, violently, eight years ago.
When she complains to a department store about a broken watch, the section chief, Makoto Mizushima, comes to her flat with replacements and kisses her. They begin an affair, though he has a wife and children. Jinji follows her on his bicycle. He shoves a stranger off a train for barging into him. Then a detective tells Towako that Kurosaki has been missing for five years, and her sister, Misuzu, recalls Jinji insisting, too firmly, that Towako could never meet Kurosaki again. She becomes sure Jinji killed him.
Visiting Kurosaki's wife, Kayo, Towako runs into Kayo's uncle, Kunieda, and the past comes back: Kurosaki pressed her into a night with the powerful old man to win his backing, then married his niece and beat Towako when she protested. Mizushima, meanwhile, is seeing another woman, and the watch he gave her was cheap. Jinji admits to killing Kurosaki. When Mizushima casually demands sex, Towako attacks him. Jinji arrives, stops her, and tells Mizushima to say that Jinji did it.
Then Towako remembers the rest. Years after their break-up, Kurosaki summoned her and asked her to sleep with Kunieda again, for ten million yen, promising to make her happy. She killed him. She called Jinji, who disposed of the body, took the killing on himself and let her forget it. Now he tells her he will carry all of it: she should find a decent man and be happy, and if she has a child, think of it as him. Then he takes his own life, and a flock of birds whose names she does not know rises into the sky.
Starring
Yu Aoias Towako Kitahara
A woman who lives off a man she despises while pining for the lover who left her, with a hole in her memory.
Towako Kitahara’s story
Towako lives off Jinji and sneers at him, and spends her afternoons watching videos of dates with Kurosaki, the lover who left her, violently, eight years ago. She begins an affair with Mizushima, a married section chief who reminds her of Kurosaki. Told that Kurosaki has been missing for five years, she becomes sure Jinji killed him, and Jinji says he did. Meeting Kunieda, whom Kurosaki once pressed her to sleep with for his career, brings the past back. Mizushima has another woman, and his watch was cheap. When he casually demands sex, she attacks him, and then she remembers: five years ago, when Kurosaki asked her to sleep with Kunieda again, she killed him, and Jinji hid it and let her forget. Jinji tells her to find a decent man and be happy, and takes his own life.
Sadao Abeas Jinji Sano
A crude, devoted construction worker fifteen years older than Towako, who supports her, follows her and guards a secret.
Jinji Sano’s story
Jinji, a construction worker fifteen years older than Towako, keeps her: he cooks, massages her, hands her money and rings her many times a day, and gets only contempt. He follows her and insists, too firmly, that she will never see Kurosaki again. When she asks where Kurosaki is, he says he killed him and buried him. It is not true. Five years earlier Towako killed Kurosaki and called Jinji, who disposed of the body, took the killing on himself and let her forget. When she attacks Mizushima, Jinji stops her, tells Mizushima to say Jinji did it, and tells her everything. He will carry all of it, he says; she should find a decent man and be happy, and if she has a child, think of it as him born again. Then he takes his own life.
Tori Matsuzakaas Makoto Mizushima
A married department-store watch salesman who begins an affair with Towako and treats her as a diversion.
Yutaka Takenouchias Shunichi Kurosaki
Towako's former lover, charming and violent, who traded her to a powerful man for his career and has been missing for five years.
Eri Murakawaas Kayo Kunieda
Kurosaki's wife and the niece of the powerful Kunieda, whom Towako visits to find out what happened to him.
Why it matters
Birds Without Names spends most of its length making its two leads hard to like, a woman who sneers at the man who feeds her and a man whose devotion looks like stalking, and then turns every sympathy it has built upside down. The issues are exploitative love, in which a man trades the woman he claims to love for his career, the way trauma can wipe a memory clean, and a devotion so complete that it slides into surveillance and self-destruction. Kazuya Shiraishi, known for violent crime films, made it as a love story. It screened in the Contemporary World Cinema section at Toronto in 2017; Yu Aoi won best actress at the Japan Academy Film Prize and Sadao Abe best actor at the Blue Ribbon Awards. It leaves a question: whether Jinji's love is the purest thing in the film or the most frightening, and whether a life can be given as a gift without becoming a debt.