Its Hidden Side - The Tokyo Night Sky Is Always the Densest Shade of Blue

"The Tokyo Night Sky Is Always the Densest Shade of Blue.”  The mere name suggests the sad tone of the movie. In fact, the whole movie guides the audience through the lives of a few sad characters, each blaming life for reasons of his own. There is Mika, the nurse who sees frequent deaths in the hospital where she works. She then has to speed home on her bicycle to shake off the feeling of pensive sadness thus caused. Her mother’s death, believed to have been a suicide, also accounts for her constant doubt about life and death. Having once been jilted, she has lost confidence in love. Even when her ex-boy friend returns with a refreshed attempt to win her heart, she turns him down.

Shinji, the chief male character, is a construction worker. Underpaid and without job security, he is all the time worried about the high costs of living, having to work out the price of practically everything before making a purchase. He seems to be always squinting at something or someone with suspicion because of blurred vision in one eye. Once he is seen reading a book in a boisterous girlie bar where everyone else is having fun and fooling around, deliberately oblivious of the misery of life they are trapped in. Even his small den, with hardly any space for a comfortable stretch of his long legs, is lined on one wall with low shelves of books. He could have found a better job had it not been for his poor eyesight.

The director’s use of shots well serves to highlight the uncertainty of life and the bleakness of the future. The blue-collars waiting in a queue for the bus are all bending over their cell phones, heedless of a hot-air balloon flying overhead. Mika, the only one aware of its presence, looks up and feels something ominous. Then every now and then, the threat of an earthquake is felt and someone exclaims, “Japan is over!” A man, the stoutest among the few construction workers, dies suddenly of a stroke.
Everyone seems to be smoking, venting his grievances through deep inhaling. Ashtrays overflowing with half smoked cigarettes appear repeatedly on different scenes. There seems nothing more they can do in protest against life. Life is a complete picture of melancholy.
Despite the seeming hopelessness of life, however, there is a sprinkling of encouraging signs. With a screaming voice, a busker sings the refrain repeatedly, asking everyone to go for it, though no one ever stops to listen. The slowly developing friendship between Mika and Shinji, an attempt to give love a try, is encouraging enough for each other to view life with more optimism. The blooming bud of the potted plant on the side of the ashtray is an obvious sign of hope, too. 
One interesting remark I would like to make, though, is that because of the pervading night scenes, my eyes had to struggle a bit for adjustment during the rare moments of broad daylight. 

This is a good movie especially for those who are used to the prosperity of the city of Tokyo and are curious about its hidden side, too.