Unprecedented (2021)

It is impossible to comprehensively map the ultimate extent of the damage wrought by the waves of the corona pandemic in all the layers of the society. It does not, however, require a lot of guesswork to see the links between the steeply increased numbers of corona patients, domestic violence cases and OnlyFans users. Director Masaaki Kudo creates a directly intimate and dauntlessly raw portrait of young people who are enjoying their early twenties in the midst of restrictions in Tokyo and are due to a lack of financial security extremely vulnerable, trying to cope with lost jobs and the ever deepening debts each in their own way. Instead of a conventional melodrama, Kudo offers a dramaturgical approach that is provocatively honest. The result is a very bold look into a world where ambitions are day by day turning more into a mission to simply survive and make do.