Synopsis
In a small town by the sea, a high school girl, Maiko, is longing to be a member of Japan’s top idol group “AKB48” but unable to take a step into her dream. While her intense self-consciousness isolates her in the class, she connects with Sugawara also called “Buddha Sugawara” because of gentle nature. Sugawara is the only one she can rely on. During summer days, those two girls become more mature by meeting Sasano and Furuno from Syamisen club, along with the sound of Melody.

Program Note
Self-taught director YAMATO Yuki makes her debut with this film That Girl Is Dancing by the Seaside . To produce this film, she organized a college film club and took charge of directing, screenwriting, and even shooting. Therefore, this film could be called a pure “independent film”, and we can find no more fitting word than “independent” in light of not only the process of its production, but also its form and content. Namely, we can encounter some underdeveloped elements in terms of the classic cinematic grammar where there are scenes out of sync, sounds without any purpose, and camera angles that keep following dislocated eyes and trajectories. However, in the middle of the film, when we find some unexpected poses and movements in the long-take shot, which seemingly give up all other elements and retain only the shot’s length, we finally realize that our focus should not be the unskilled aspects, but rather the director’s vigor in her search for an “independent” cinematic expression that distances itself from what we are familiar with. This drive also corresponds with the film’s narrative and theme, which construct multilayered meanings associated with the “dancing girl”, and also with the conversation of the “Shamisen brothers”, later in the film, and can be even more clearly seen in her second work, Her Res–3 Cases in Which You Will Find Me in 3 Minutes . [LEE Yumi]