Review of the movie 'Aristocrats' - The melancholy of a former Keio boy who cannot escape the class divide within his alma mater.

Next week, I plan to go to the Mita Festival, the school festival of Keio University, with my second son. My eldest son will be performing live, so I intend to go watch him.

A long time ago, a professional writer taught me that 'writing is a service.'

You must never use your writing to assert dominance over others.

Even if you have a favorable status yourself, it is better to hide it.

However, there is something I cannot avoid when discussing this movie.

I am a graduate of the Faculty of Law at Keio University.

Please forgive me, as there is nothing but sorrow at the end of this essay that began with such an abrupt disclosure of my educational background.

Review of the movie 'Aristocrats' - The melancholy of a former Keio boy who cannot escape the class divide within his alma mater

I previously watched a movie called 'Aristocrats' at the Tokyo International Film Festival.

Since it included a stage greeting by the lead actors Mugi Kadowaki, Kiko Mizuhara, and Kengo Kora, along with director Yukiko Sode, I headed to a seat at the edge of the center section in Screen 7, the largest at TOHO Cinemas Roppongi, to witness a bright moment for Japanese cinema, which has been lacking energy lately aside from 'Demon Slayer'.

I was surprised when I watched it without any prior knowledge.

It was the movie I least wanted to see, and yet the one I most wanted to see.

The theme is the love and lives of women around thirty living in the 'upper' and 'lower' classes of Tokyo's invisible stratified society, and the suffocating feeling I have felt and lived with was brilliantly packed into that film.

Even now, I almost never go to university reunions.

Some of my old friends have annual incomes ten times higher than mine.

I know I don't need to worry about such things.

But we both understand in an instant. The cruel disparity in each other's circumstances.

The Keio connection does not end even after graduation. For some reason, it increases in presence. Every time I look at Facebook, I feel the disparity close at hand.

Unless I achieve overwhelming success myself.

This film is an adaptation of a novel by Mariko Yamauchi, and one of its motifs is the internal disparity within Keio University between internal students (those who attended Keio from elementary, junior high, or high school) and external students (those who entered via university entrance exams).

Hanako, a sheltered girl born and raised in Tokyo, is approaching 30 and feeling anxious about marriage. She goes on repeated matchmaking dates, but none of them work out. One day, she finally meets Koichiro Aoki, a handsome lawyer. He is a scion of a political family who attended Keio Yochisha Elementary School, and Hanako finds herself drawn to him and decides to marry him.

Meanwhile, Miki, who was born in the provinces and moved to Tokyo, studied hard to get into Keio University but had to drop out due to a lack of money. She was making a living working at a hostess club when she happened to run into Koichiro Aoki, an 'internal student' to whom she had once lent her notes back in college, and they began a physical relationship.

Hanako and Miki, who come from such different backgrounds, meet through the same man, and the social classes they live in, which were never meant to intersect, begin to cross.

I am reminded of the words of John Kim, a writer and former associate professor at Keio University, who said at a seminar for working professionals I attended, 'No one dares to say it out loud, but in reality, Japan is also a society built on social stratification.'

Watching this film forced me to face once again the things I had been turning a blind eye to.

The three main actors are all wonderful.

Mugi Kadowaki, who played the naive young lady Hanako, was truly excellent, capturing both her blank, oblivious side and the unpleasantness of unconsciously discriminating against others.

Kiko Mizuhara, who played Miki—a girl who worked hard at a local preparatory school to get into Keio, only to drop out when her father's business failed, and who is now struggling to survive in Tokyo—is also captivating, overflowing with vitality.

Kengo Kora, who played the quintessential scion Koichiro Aoki, leaves a lasting impression with his detached, aristocratic air and cold eyes that make it impossible to tell what he is thinking.

Shizuka Ishibashi, who plays Hanako's friend pursuing an independent path as a violinist, and Rio Yamashita, who plays a friend who joined Miki in entering Keio from university, also display their respective charms.

Hanako and Miki. Two women at opposite ends of the spectrum, both involved with the same man.

One as a marriage partner.

One as a plaything.

Until the middle of the film, their scenes progress independently, but the scene where they finally meet is deeply poignant. And then, it moves in an unexpected direction. That is what makes it interesting.

The charm of this work lies in the realistic breath of these women, who, while accepting their places in the countless subdivided 'Tokyos' they inhabit, struggle to live true to themselves.

I think it is a masterpiece of a youth film for an era when youth has ended.

Miki, who came from Toyama, was shocked to see internal students relaxing with ease at Keio's Hiyoshi campus, and when she was invited for tea after school, she was stunned by the 4,000 yen afternoon tea at the Park Hyatt Tokyo.

The first thing you notice when you enter Keio is this terrifying disconnect in financial sense.

There are men like 'Koichiro,' a scion of a political family, in my own life as well. They are incredibly rich, handsome, smart, and on top of that, have good personalities.

Meeting such people was a shocking experience for me, having come from a remote village in Ibaraki.

The atmosphere they carry is completely different.

The clothes they wear, the cars they drive, the shops they frequent, the people they associate with.

When I was excited about my first Mita Festival, they were traveling first class to the south of France or New York.

Hanging out on the Hiyoshi campus, they radiated an overwhelming sense of ease.

Even though I lived in a different world from them, through a friend who was a returnee I met in a dance circle, I started talking to three students who had attended Keio from middle school. I wrote a joint thesis with one of them in a seminar. His home was within walking distance of Keio's Mita campus.

As for what they are doing now, one is in a key cabinet post, one is a diplomat in France, and one is the CEO of a long-established manufacturer.

Seeing their global and national-level achievements on Facebook gives me an indescribable feeling.

I wasn't satisfied with the company I joined as a new graduate, so I quit at 28, spent three years working part-time jobs while attending film school until I was penniless, then worked as a film producer at a certain film company for seven years before being transferred to a studio. After that, I was involved in the development and operation of a local mini-theater and worked as a programming manager for four years, but the parent company went bankrupt and the mini-theater closed. Now, I work in foreign-affiliated resort relations. Since COVID, the impact on my work has been significant, and with two sons in college and high school, I have no financial leeway.

Meanwhile, on my Facebook, images of them chatting with wine in hand unfold.

I could just choose not to look.

But even now, I cannot escape that 'Keio internal class society'.

The overwhelming upper-class society that appears in this movie actually exists.

Normally, it's fine not to look, or not to see it. But it's a bit tough when it's visible in your surroundings.

To those going to Keio from now on.

To those whose children are about to go to Keio.

You will be seeing 'that' for the rest of your life, so you had better be prepared for it.

It is a movie that lets you experience that reality.

And, the day before this movie was released, my eldest son became their junior.

I dared not recommend this movie to him (laughs).

He is now a sophomore in college, and while he feels the class divide within the university firsthand, he is still happily enjoying his youth.

The gap in our society is widening rapidly. This film is an extreme example of that. But it is reality.

Hanako and Miki. The two women in this film acknowledge the 'strata' they belong to, yet they choose to stop being trapped by them and take a new step forward.

Even though I was shown a cruel reality, for some reason, I felt refreshed when I left the theater.

We are living in a 'stratified society' without even realizing it.

Even if that is a reality we cannot turn our eyes away from, I intend to keep competing from here on out.

Just like them.

I want my eldest son to accept such an obvious reality and enjoy his campus life to the fullest.

And I want him to let out the most satisfying shout of the year at the Mita Festival.

I'm looking forward to it.