JUNE 17, 2025
A girl finds herself at a bus stop waiting for the right bus to take her home. However, she is not alone, there is a mannequin that follows the course of his life. We don’t know her past, where she comes from or where she is going, but we know one thing: she has just reached a speedbump in her life, and being in that bus stop, having those minutes for herself makes her self aware of her life and her mortality. She lights a cigarette and smokes it peacefully until the end. The universal gesture of lighting a cigarette may be seen as a pause from her life, from her routine, as the cigarette breaks happen usually at the office, for a brief period of time when you get to be with yourself among the others.
But the bus stop is not just for two, and as time goes by, various people come and take the third chair: an old woman who plays a violin-like instrument, a young girl who seems lost and finds herself in the short period of time while she has a smoke, a mother with a stroller who looks tired and empty and a weird man who ompliments the aforementioned girl. They all meet in this public comfort zone, a place that usually is just for transit, a place where nothing lasts. The mannequin is the only one that seems to never leave this place, as he is the protector, the one that empowers the lost ones who seek shelter in the bus stop.
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This short would not be as good without its powerful soundtrack while the ending credits song played by ‘Deca Joins’ is a game-changer. The whole narrative blossoms again as the movie ends, as this perfectly chosen song is placed here to remind us that we are not alone, and there is always a new beginning.
Hirokawa Hayashida made one of the most intimate shorts we’ve ever watched, the kind of film that gives comfort to our tiny, lonely hearts.
Review written by Vlad A.G