Party ‘Round the Globe (地球はお祭り騒ぎ, Hirobumi Watanabe, 2017)

Ever since their startlingly surreal debut And the Mud Ship Sails Away, the Watanabe brothers have been quietly making waves, determined to put their native Tochigi on the big screen. Last year’s award winning Poolsideman took them to a darker place than they’d hitherto ventured as its silent protagonist lived out his days with rage fuelled anxiety, ready to explode at any given second. Party ‘Round the Globe (地球はお祭り騒ぎ, Chikyu wa Omatsurisawagi) neatly mirrors Poolsideman’s despair and counters it with everyday joys. Once again starring Gaku Imamura as a silent loner, and the director himself, Hirobumi Watanabe, as the non-stop chatterbox intent on making friends with him, the latest effort from the Watanabe brothers finds that despite the myriad awful things reported in the news, life is still basically good, at least in Tochigi when the sun is shining.

In a mild departure from the now familiar pattern, Watanabe opens with a beautifully animated picture book sequence in which a little robot child dreams of travelling to the moon but is unable to catch it even when speeding full steam ahead with his friend, Mr. Car. The robot children love the moon so much that they build a factory to produce fake moons which soon fill the sky, leaving the adults confused and worried, unable to tell the real moon from the fake. All too soon the boy is alone again as his friends float away looking for the “real” moon.

Seemingly divorced from the main narrative, the images from the picture book recur throughout as part of the decor in the strangely warm family home inhabited by the silent and melancholy Mr. Honda (Gaku Imamura) and his lovely little dog, Ringo. Mr. Honda’s routine is set – he listens to the radio as he prepares breakfast, takes Ringo for a walk, and works at a small family run electronics factory where he keeps his head down and concentrates on the repetitive exactitude of soldering circuitboards all day long. The day is interrupted by the cheerful sound of the musical bells which signal a pause in his work, but unlike his colleagues who cluster around the table in the staff room, Mr. Honda stands alone outside, smoking sadly in silence.

Mr. Honda’s life changes when the radio announces some good news for a change – Paul McCartney is coming back to Japan. Unexpectedly invited to accompany a colleague, Hirayama (Hirobumi Watanabe), Mr. Honda finds himself driving all the way to Tokyo with a man who won’t stop talking. Hirayama monologues on and on, never waiting for the answer to his questions and often filling them in himself so he can carry on ranting about standing room only concert venues, entitled Bob Dylan fans, and once again the mystifying fascination young people seem to hold for One Piece. Yet where Poolsideman’s anti-social loner merely tolerated his colleague’s loquacity, Mr. Honda seems almost relieved his new friend is doing most of the talking and is grateful to have been included on this trip, not least because he is also a big McCartney fan who failed to get tickets for his landmark concert.

Mr. Honda’s radio announces terrible things happening everywhere – mistrust in government as the scandal surrounding polluted land at the site of the controversial relocation of the Tsukiji fish market intensifies while the rightwing ruling party is intent on passing an equally controversial anti-conspiracy law which many fear will infringe on civil liberties. Abroad there are religious hate crimes, buildings burning down with people trapped inside, and North Korea sabre rattling in the background. Mr. Honda reacts to them all with stoical indifference, watering his plants, watching baseball games and enjoying the peace and quiet of a pleasant spring day. Yet there’s a sadness in his serenity, as if he’s trying to block out a personal tragedy through silence and repetition as he takes care of his dog alone in a house filled with picture books and children’s drawings but seemingly no children.

Nevertheless, life goes on and the globe keeps turning. Mr. Hirayama’s grandmother celebrates her 100th birthday surrounded by her large extended family who gladly make room for friends old and new. Mr. Honda and Ringo are no longer quite so silent and alone, coaxed out of their self-imposed isolation by the extroverted Hirayama who is also glad to have unexpectedly made a new friend in bonding over a shared love of retro pop. No matter how bad things seem to be, there is still warmth and friendship to be found everywhere but most especially in Tochigi.

Screened at Nippon Connection 2018.

Original trailer (English subtitles)