Part of the 2009 season: Reality Fiction

Now, I

Ima, Boku Wa

Director Yasutomo Chikuma

Cast Yasutomo Chikuma, Yoshiharu Fujisawa, Masato Shiga

2007/DV-Cam/87min/Colour /English Subtitles

Satoru is a so-called NEET (“not engaged in employment, education or training”), living a reclusive life in the apartment of his single mother, whom he barely ever speaks to, and literally doing nothing except hole up in his bedroom where he sleeps, subsists on junk food, watches TV and plays video games.

One day, at his anxious mother’s request, a young acquaintance Tosawa appears on the doorstep and attempts to coax him out of his shell, but he faces an uphill battle if he wishes the painfully shy and withdrawn Satoru to venture out into the wider world.  Based on the experiences of some actual friends of his, Chikuma painfully draws attention to a social phenomenon that might be more prevalent than one imagines.