Opening sequence analysis - 1

 I WANT TO EAT YOUR PANCREAS

Genre: Coming-of-age, Drama

Written by: Yoru Sumino

Directed by: Shinichiro Ushijima

Produced by: Yuma Takahashi and Shinichiro Kashiwada

Distributed by: Aniplex

Release dates: July 24, 2018 (Tokyo)

                          September 1, 2018 (Japan)

Running time: 108 minutes

Box Office: $6.2 million

1. Synopsis

" I want to eat your pancreas." 

This is how Sakura, the main female character, speaks to Haruki, the other protagonist. The story is about two high school students being brought together by a secret. 

Flashback, Haruki and Sakura are classmates. However, when Haruki visits the hospital, he accidentally finds out that his popular classmate is experiencing pancreatic cancer. Later on, they started to get closer and talk more. One day, when arranging books in the library. Sakura tells Haruki about a myth that she believes that if someone eats an organ, it can cure that organ's illness. Haruki did not trust it; he felt it was ridiculous, and they let that story go right after that. Time by time, more memories were made between them, but Sakura was also getting closer to death with each passing day due to her illness. They tried to create a to-do list before Sakura had to leave this beautiful world. Unfortunately, she had to be urgently hospitalized to treat that deadly illness. 

They sneaked out together to see fireworks while Sakura was in hospital. She invited him for lunch when she was officially released from the hospital, but that was the last time they met. After that day, Haruki knew that Sakura passed because of being stabbed by a serial killer. Haruki broke down and did not even dare to attend Sakura's funeral.  The movie continues with numerous details of how Haruki moved on from the death of the girl he likes. At the film's end, Haruki finally overcame the pain and returned to visit Sakura's grave years later. 

2. Why did I choose this movie?

I would like to share another bittersweet romance movie. The stereotype of romance movies is always about perfect love, the perfect partner, and soulmates. However, there are various terrible cases in which their love can not be completed. It can be an unrequited love or the right person at the wrong time trope. Also, I plan to create a sad romance as my final product, so this film could be an option for me to investigate how they develop characters and combine scenes to make it smooth and easy to watch. 

3. Analysis

Before the sequence starts, a usual introduction to the distribution company, Aniplex, appears with a flipping horizontal effect. An establishing shot faded in with a dark color. It encodes sadness as heavy rain is outside, and the sky is dim and black. Following that, the narrative of our protagonist, Haruki, also mentions that that day is not a happy day for many people when the funeral of his classmate, Sakura, occurs. Haruki's tone of voice sounds apathetic but still has a sense of sorrow; it combines with the sound of rain, making it feel denser and gloomy. 

The following scene is shot close-up with horizontal panning, focusing on students' hands. Low-key lighting shows bleakness, with light music, but it is small to avoid affecting the narrative. On their hands, each person is holding prayer beads with interlocking fingers. These encode that they are in a formal ceremony connected with the narrative; viewers can easily guess they are at a funeral. 

It then straight-cut into the next scene. In this shot, they used a wide shot angle and horizontal panning to capture the funeral filled with numerous people. Based on their school uniforms, the people who attended the funeral were mainly students. In the surroundings, some people in black suits stand next to the wall; they could be the main character's relatives. 

A medium shot is employed, revealing the character with loud crying as the sound. This brown-haired character's tears encode pain and despair. Another long black hair character leans her head on the brown's shoulder. She looks lifeless and tired. As a result, we can conclude that they are Sakura's best friends, and they are in pain because she has passed away. 

The narrative continues, saying that many people are there and cry for Sakura, which expresses that her life meant something to someone. Suddenly, the dialogue becomes dreary when he says, "I was absent." This raises numerous questions from the followers: Why did he not participate in his classmate's funeral when everyone was there? Some predictions can also be made that she and our male character may have argued significantly before Sakura died. However, it does not stop viewers from thinking that this male protagonist has lousy behavior and could be a person lacking humanity. 

The sequence proceeds with a high-angle camera right after that, exposing the person talking at the film's beginning. This camera angle allows the audience to observe the whole setting and shows Haruki's loneliness. He lies on his side, curled up on the bed, representing a sense of misery. The surroundings are extremely messy, and the room is completely dark, even though it is bright outside. Only a few small rays of light pierce through the curtains. These encode how he suffers from the pain to the point that he is unaffected by the surroundings. The camera constantly uses medium close-ups, zoom-ins, and zoom-outs to capture every last trace of unresolved anguish on Haruki's face. A non-diegetic sound, soft music, is in the background to keep the audience's attention. 

It then faded out and transitioned to a scene in total contrast to the previous scene. We called this parallel editing. While those first scenes create a dismal atmosphere with a cold palette of blue and black, the next scene begins with a close-up shot of a colorful window that lets all the light in, which is more vibrant and cheerful. The setting changes from Haruki's bedroom to Haruki when he stands in front of a bookshelf in the library and arranges books. Then, a girl runs to him and helps him with many books. At this time, watchers should realize that this has turned into a flashback moment. 

The two-shot method is frequently utilized during this time to show the conversation between characters. However, it is also a chance for the audience to understand more about the characters' traits based on their narrative and behavior. For example, in this scene, Haruki sees Sakura sort the wrong books and immediately reminds her to return them to the right place. It encodes that Haruki is a guy who follows guidelines and norms. Furthermore, he is accountable for his duties. 

He also tells Sakura to lower her tone because they are in the library, where people are not allowed to be noisy. It adds to the demonstration of Haruki's seriousness. 

Another two-shots show two characters and how Sakura disturbs Haruki.                                                                             

Close-up shot to express Sakura's annoyance when Haruki makes her memorize the library book code

On the other hand, Sakura has a different personality from Haruki. While Haruki is calm and shows he does not care about anything, Sakura always lives carefree and energetically. This is encoded in the library scene, where Sakura frequently speaks loudly inside the library and follows Haruki everywhere he goes. Two characters represent different traits but are still attracted to each other, which keeps the audience interested. 

The next scene is just about the two of them having a small chit-chat about the superstition that Sakura believes in. 

The sequence ends with Sakura's POV when she pushes Haruki against the wall and Haruki's POV when Sakura tells him, "I want to eat your pancreas." This announces the movie's title and lets the audience know that the film starts from here. 

4. Conclusion

Overall, the opening sequence uses juxtaposition to draw the audience's attention. The first scenes set a somber tone, and then, in the middle of the opening, they switch to a more colorful flashback. 

The characters are well-introduced, and the audience can easily see their differences in personalities but still feel the connection. 

Finally, this is a slice-of-life, coming-of-age, and romantic tragedy subject. It is displayed in places like libraries and high school uniforms. Otherwise, when the funeral is shot at the beginning of the film, the disruption stage of equilibrium theory is where the movie begins.