The Exposure Time (2021)

A story about Hikari, who tries to capture her late sister Akari on film as a way of dealing with her grief.

I watched this short movie quite some time ago, but I kept thinking about it and the different interpretations, so I knew I had to sub it (of course the beautiful music by Ito Naho is also a major factor in me subbing it). Since then, I've seen it over ten times and I still really enjoy it. It's one of those shorts you can keep rewatching to spot more details and to analyze it further. What did you think about watching it? Feel free to leave a comment below.

Also, can we talk about the beautiful typesetting by the minamo design studio? It's clear that people who worked on this short gave it their all, just like with Lemmings.

Written, directed, shot and edited by Sumi Yosuke. If you enjoyed this short movie, do check out Lemmings and ROAD TO, his other works that I subbed.

Cast: 

• Nakamura Sarasa as Hikari
• Oyama Maeko as Akari
• Saito Riku as Yoshihito

The location for shooting was the Ochanoma Guesthouse in Chiba Prefecture and a rental darkroom in Shiinamachi area.

Their names are a nice wordplay. Hikari in Japanese means light in general sense, while Akari is light that illuminates. I wonder why the director chose these names? There must be some meaning behind it. For Hikari's name, he uses 光莉 (combination of hikari kanji and jasmine kanji), while for Akari's, he uses the star kanji 星 which is less used for the name. Yoshihito's name 義人 is a combination of the kanji for righteousness and person.