With “Inner Loop Couple”, Shibano Taro participated in Moosic Lab for the second year in a row, after ‘Killer Tune Radio’, his 2017 entry. “Inner Loop Couple” did well with both judges and regular viewers and at the 2018 Moosic Lab Shorts Awards it was the Runner-up for the Grand Prix and won awards for Best Actor, Best Actress and for its music.

“Inner Loop Couple” tells the story of a boy and a girl, who meet by accident on the Yamanote train line. They start talking and walk through the streets of Shibuya by night. During this walk, it turns out they’ve met before, as the girl used to be a popular singer and he came to one of her shows. They talk about life in general, and about how their earlier meeting influenced their lives. Most of us have had these conversations that start as chatting with a random stranger and end up giving us nice memories and stuff to think about.

The Yamanote line, Tokyo’s busiest and most important railway line, calls at both stations. Trains on this line run in two directions: clockwise and counter-clockwise. This last one is also known as the inner circle which is referred to in the title. But it’s not just in the title that the setting of the film plays an important part. Scenes of the two protagonists alternate with shots of Shibuya, the part of Tokyo that houses two of the world’s busiest railway stations: Shinjuku and Shibuya station. Outside of Japan, it is probably best known for its landmarks such as the famous pedestrian crossing and the statue of Hachiko. However, these are not the settings that feature in the film, as Shibano Taro wants to show us another side of this neighborhood. As one of the characters says ”only while walking one really sees the surroundings, on a train we only see the stations”. This is exactly what we see: a city by night, its back streets, essentially parts of the area normally not seen by tourists or in films.

Of the cinematography, the careful framing of the shots stands out, as almost all shots of the couple are either centered on one of the characters or feature a great level of symmetry and mirroring. Shots of the couple are for the main part medium and close ones, focusing on them and their facial expressions. Kawagoishi Shunpei and Okano Maya, the actors, both give performances that are characterized by subtlety and that is as telling in the silent moments as in the dialogue. Also, the switch the female character makes from rather timid person to performing the song and dancing in the street feels natural and as such is very believable. Shots of the city are mostly buildings seen from the point of view of the protagonists and establishing shots taken from a higher vantage point that have a more documentary feel. This fits well with one of the motives of the director: recording the changes Tokyo and more specifically Shibuya is going through in the run up to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

The Moosic Lab is a Japanese annual competition that creates opportunities for up-and-coming film directors and music artists to work together. Movie titles produced exclusively for Moosic Lab are then featured in regional and nationwide film festivals. The films coming from these collaborations are not typical music videos but short (narrative) films that incorporate music. The song that features in “Inner Loop Couple” is called Akari Machi by The Whoops and it is used in different ways: as background music in an instrumental version, as a song performed by the female protagonist during the film and in its original recording during the end credits.

“Inner Loop Couple” is a quiet movie that relates to a wide audience thanks to its simple yet elegant structure. As such, it stands up to multiple viewings and the awards it won, were more than deserved.