“Our 30 Minutes Session" is a Japanese fantasy music film released in 2020, also known as "Our 30 Minutes Session", directed by Kentaro Hagiwara, starring actors Mackenyu Arata, Kitamura Takumi, and Sayu Kubota, the plot is about a cheerful and outgoing lead singer, Aki, who dreams of leading the band "SCHOLL" to perform on the stage of a music festival. But he is killed in a car accident. A year later, Sota, a college student who is always bogged down in the job search process because of his social ineptitude, happens to pick up a cassette tape left behind by Aki.
The power to transcend a thousand words
Whether it is "My Tomorrow, Your Yesterday'", "Fortuna's Eye", "Tonight, at the Movies", "The Memory Eraser", "Before the Coffee Gets Cold", or "Miracles of the Namibia General Store", all of which have the ability to travel through time and space, or "The Memory Eraser", "Before the Coffee Gets Cold", or "Miracles of the Namibia General Store" about mysterious urban legends, they all have the ability to be innovative, interesting, and entertaining. All of them have been able to wrap the daily events we may encounter in real life with innovative and intriguing story topics, giving the audience profound reflections on human nature or social issues, and this "Our 30 Minutes Session" is no exception.
Is "Our 30 Minutes Session" rated well?
In 2017, Sakaguchi Kentaro and singer Miwa starred in the fantasy romance film "The 100th Love With You", which depicts the deep emotions between the characters that transcend time and space through the hero's attempt to go back in time to change the reality of the girl he loves who was killed in a car accident and uses an orchestra and vinyl records throughout the film to bring the audience a most romantic and sadistic story of pure love. This time, "Our 30 Minutes Session" continues the creative spirit of "The 100th Love With You" and once again puts the core of the film on music and songs, starting from a forgotten cassette tape and using songs to awaken the beautiful memories lost by the characters in the film in an accident.
Personally, I think the biggest advantage of "Our 30 Minutes Session" is that despite its seemingly clichéd subject matter, the story itself is not at all clichéd, not only does it have the kind of love story of a man and a woman that separates the yin and yang of "Meet Joe Black" and "Mon Ange", but through the main axis of the movie, which revolves around the orchestra and the songs, each character influences each other and tells us how to face and solve problems when we encounter them. Through the main theme of the band and the songs, each character influences each other and tells how we should face and solve the problems we encounter and grow in the process, which is an important topic that everyone must learn in life.
The fascinating theme of “Our 30 Minutes Session”
With the theme of encounters between humans and ghosts, "Our 30 Minutes Session" is a fantasy film that is both hot and romantic, yet tearful and warm. The film conveys the core of the film about dealing with pain and finding one's own future path, and indeed captures the strength of the subject matter itself, making a complete play for the soul exchange element.
As a musical film, "Our 30 Minutes Session" follows "A Little Love Song" and "Little Nights, Little Love" in showing us that songs are not only a medium for conveying emotions, but also have the magical power to change hearts and minds, allowing us to hold a positive attitude and move in the right direction. The ability to exchange bodies with him for 30 minutes follows him into the world of music and the members of the band "SCHOLL", gradually transformed by Aki's optimistic attitude, the enthusiasm of the group for music, and the revolutionary emotions that brought them together, making the whole story not only complete and mature but also full of rich characterization.
The theme of the "Our 30 Minutes Session" episode
I like the way "Our 30 Minutes Session" portrays the characters in the film, whether it's Sota who only wants to use Aki to get a good job interview, Aki who only wants to use Sota's body to meet his girlfriend Kana with the band members, or Kana and the band members who feel inexplicable about Sota's appearance and are hostile and repulsive to him, they all end up, through songs and band performances, reminiscing about the good times they experienced together in the past. In the midst of the pain of losing their mother at a young age or the core of the band a year earlier, they all eventually recover their love for music as a lifelong interest and their original intention to achieve their goals and ideals through their songs and performances.
Therefore, "Our 30 Minutes Session" does not highlight the element of love like many films with similar themes, but instead focuses on the transformation of the character's state of mind, unraveling the knot through songs and the process of getting on stage, learning to face the pain of the departure of a cherished one, and letting it become the motivation for one's own growth. Just like a moving star in the sky will eventually return to its original position, a book on the shelf needs to be taken out of the sun after a long time, and it may be sad to see Aki leave, but it should not affect the determination of the band members to pursue their dreams.