Trisha Reviews: Night is Long, Walk On Girl

This movie is one of the most random things I’ve ever seen in my life – and I went through both a MySpace ~adorkable~ phase and an improv comedy phase.

Before watching Night is Short, Walk on Girl, I watched another movie by the same director, Masaaki Yuasa, called Ride Your Wave. I thought Ride Your Wave was sweet and breezy, but nothing to write home about. After watching it, I came across a review that said something along the lines of, “it was too normal compared to the director’s other movies,” which left me intrigued. I decided to watch Night is Short, Walk on Girl because it was the only other movie by this director available on HBO Max.

I was initially hesitant to watch it because, as the trailer above implies, drinking, especially Japan’s sometimes-intense drinking culture, is a big part of the movie. I’ve been wrestling a lot with my relationship with alcohol over the past year and, because of this, I’ve tended to shy away from media that glorifies drinking. However, I was happy to learn while watching that it didn’t “glorify” drinking that much, and was only really a big part of the first third of the movie. Great!

I mention my relationship with alcohol because it has affected many of my interpersonal relationships (for better or for worse), and I was pleasantly surprised to find out that, beneath all of its randomness, Night is Short, Walk on Girl is really about how we are all connected to each other. While watching the movie, I thought it was just coincidence – for example, “Wow! The unrequited love guy is pining after the bride from the wedding scene!” However, as the movie played on, I realized that this was all by design.

We’re all bit players in each other’s movies! You may think you’re unimportant, but you also might not even realize the role you play in someone else’s life! Everyone has their own motivations, and they may not always match up with yours! People do unexpected things, and they affect other people in unexpected ways!

Sweeping existential themes aside, I just loved this movie’s humor. It was frantic and chaotic and had so many characters and storylines. There was a fact-filled, serious soliloquy about the interconnectedness of literature and an outrageous spicy soup eating competition – within minutes of each other, in the same place, but with little overlap with each other! Still part of a continuous storyline! How!

The wildest thing was that, despite its volatility, it also had everything tied up and together by the end. As strange as a random throwaway line or outfit choice was, as the story progressed, I was able to pick out clever little nuggets of foreshadowing or ultimately meaningless and absurd, yet well-chosen, callbacks.

Though the movie definitely slowed down at the end, I still enjoyed the journey enough to give this movie a strong recommendation. The art is beautiful, the story is silly, and the characters are eccentric – and the journey overall is a strange romp with a surprisingly touching ending. I’ll be thinking about this movie for a long time, for sure.

*And if anyone can hook me up with a fish backpack/jacket – hit me up! (image from ordinarilydecent.wordpress.com)*

2020 Gratitude: Alcohol (or a lack thereof)

My relationship with alcohol has changed a lot in the past 10 years.

(10 years? How old am I again?)

Around the time I settled into my post-grad life, I likewise settled into a predictable drinking schedule – maybe a beer or two during the week, pre-game and go out with friends over the weekends, maybe get a little too drunk sometimes, but who cares? I’m young! I can handle it!

However, like a lot of things in my life, I’m constantly re-evaluating and trying to find a balance of what feels good and what doesn’t. And late last year into early this year, for many different reasons, getting drunk just didn’t seem to suit me anymore. While I appreciated how getting drunk made me feel more personable, friendly, and funny, it also made it too easy for me to slip back into old ways, which I had mindfully and purposely put behind me.

(Also, I’m getting older, and hangovers are getting worse! Are they even worth it anymore?)

Instead, I evaluated what I like about drinking (the taste, the camaraderie, a little buzz) and weighed it with what I didn’t like about drinking (overdrinking, especially without realizing, the price) and set strict limits with myself. I decided to be mindful about my drinking and consciously listening to my body while I drink. In a less rah-rah way, I’ve had to set limits for myself, and strictly hold myself to them.

The thing that I’m specifically grateful for is that 2020 has all but eliminated any societal pressure to drink! No concerts to pregame! No bars! No house parties! While this sucks in almost every other way, it’s been perfect for my newfound journey with alcohol and limiting my intake.

I’ve made sure that the few times that I have drank this year have been within my self-imposed guidelines. In January and February, I had a drink or two at concerts or shows, but actually wasn’t drinking that much because of my upcoming marathon. When that got cancelled, I let myself go a little too much and ended up violating my own rules and, as expected, crossed lines that I didn’t want to cross and, frankly, ruined everyone else’s fun. Though this was a tough pill to swallow, it did make me feel more secure in my decisions around controlling my drinking moving forward.

(Oddly enough, I did drink more than I expected in Japan. Highballs, in particular, were plentiful and often cheaper than getting water! However, I often get nervous when travelling, even more so in a country where I don’t know the language, and have already limited myself to not getting too drunk on vacations for fear of getting myself in a sticky situation.)

In self-isolation, I had a drink on my birthday, a few times on Zoom calls with friends, sometimes just because I felt like it! But I always made sure to stay within my limits and do only what made me feel good. Actually, a nice side effect of cutting down on drinking in general is that it’s easier to get a slight buzz with less volume – so I’d consider that a win-win!

I know that, as things become more “normal” going into the new year, that these boundaries are going to be tested even more and more. I’m using this time at home to really feel confident and secure in my decisions so that I can hold my ground in the new year – hopefully!

New Year, New Me: Mental

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A post shared by trisha (@tserquina) on Dec 31, 2017 at 9:09pm PST

Taking better care of my mental health isn’t really a “new year’s resolution.” It’s more of a thing that I’ve known I had to take care of for years but didn’t, for many different reasons. Like finances, it’s become important to me to be more open about my mental health because it currently isn’t something that I talk to anyone about.

For example, I only told my mom that I was going to therapy after nearly 5 months of seeing my therapist – and even then, I was nervous to tell her! Nervous! I am very proud to work with a lot of mental health providers, and I respect their work immensely, but I’m still a bit shy to discuss my own mental health with others. Why am I so nervous about talking about mental health?

There’s a ton of reasons – social judgement being the big one – but part of my mental self-care has been adopting a “fuck it” attitude, and this feels like a great place to start.

I’m planning much more in-depth posts throughout October about my mental health care journey, but there are a couple of lessons that I’ve specifically learned during quarantine that I want to bring with me into the rest of this “new year” – read about them after the break!

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