“To truly love someone, we must learn to let them go, so that they can truly be free and grow”

Anxiety realized in film. Suffocating, intimate, lyrical, and profoundly beautiful.

『 Liz & The Blue Bird 』

A Thread

Nozomi and Mizore who just happen to be the stars here. What I especially love about these two is that it's not each individual character and their traits that I love but rather the story of the relationship they have.

It was simple but yet because of it, it conveys so much emotion in their characters, the way the eye flickers, to the way the hair moves, or the way they move their legs or body etc.

The subtle directing and framing, and even abstract experimental arthouse scenes to represent the characters' thoughts—all to present the characters' emotions in a more realistic manner.

There's a question mark behind each short statement and highlighted body language. The uncertainty is suffocating, especially in a relationship that has yet to fully solidify, when emotions become too difficult to grasp let alone accept, they become pain.

Each unexpressed feeling,tiny gestures showing signs of yearning, lips parting and closing footsteps speeding up to catch up to another set of footsteps, inching closer, closer, then distracted—

All these unspoken actions seem to speak a thousand words, all combined to cause a feeling of bittersweetness so pronounced that it becomes so suffocating by the end that it can feel like you're about to burst.

Overall, This movie is a stunning portrayal of the struggles of maintaining relationships with people and understanding your own feelings. It doesn't try and sugar coat anything, and it doesn't try to make you happy. It gives it to you as it is, which is an amazing thing.—

It exemplifies what is to me the appeal of romance as a genre: that of understanding both the reason behind and the beauty of the deepest level of human affection. It's simply breathtaking.