Someone's Gaze

The first glimpse of the metropolis captivated me, and amidst my tears on my first night in a new apartment, it touched my heart in a most personal way. An overwhelming flood of emotions and sincerity during a few all-encompassing minutes. (29/09/2013)

It's not that Shinkai’s other films aren’t literal and designed based on a single dramatic template (long contemplation -> tense conflict and its drawn-out resolution -> final intimate emotional catharsis), but the format of the PR film for the Proud Box Kanshasai housing exhibition, financed by Nomura Real Estate Group, crosses that fine line between simple sincerity and straight-up advertising kitsch. In Someone’s Gaze, Shinkai’s style is entirely in the service of vehemently forced corporate messages wrapped up in soaring phrases, witty bon mots and fortune-cookie wisdom. Not to mention the fact that the short runtime, which is naturally determined by the need to speedily deliver the company’s PR message with the slogan “Bringing tomorrow today”, doesn’t leave any room for Shinkai’s usual contemplation and revelling in the details of the moment. Because of that, he quickly jumps between scenes, which are given the missing meaning and emotion by a kitschy voiceover. (23/08/2014)