Film · 2021
Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop
サイダーのように言葉が湧き上がる
Cherry writes haiku but avoids conversation; Smile makes videos but feels self-conscious about her teeth. They meet during a summer spent around a shopping centre and help an older man find a missing record. Poetry, phone messages and music give the two teenagers ways to get to know each other.
Cherry keeps headphones on to discourage people from talking to him, while Smile wears a mask over the teeth she is having straightened. Both carry a visible barrier into their first encounters. Smile's popularity as a video-maker does not remove that self-consciousness, giving the online conversations a different starting point from meeting face to face.
The missing record belongs to Fujiyama, who hopes its music will recover a memory he cannot hold on to. He also writes haiku, giving Cherry a connection with someone well beyond his own generation. Helping him gives the teenagers a shared task before either can easily explain their feelings. An old recording and the messages on their phones become different ways of trying to reach another person.
Standalone film · Approx. 87 min · one film
Standalone animated feature released in Japan in 2021; excludes the manga and novel adaptations.
