Finding the Adolescence

There are two types of movies where nothing happens. The first type is a movie that is boring. The second type is when nothing happens and that makes is prestige, meditative cinema for smart people. Finding the Adolescence straddles the line between these two types.

Finding the Adolescence follows the evolving relationship of two teen girls. The first is Takane. Her main character traits is loving art. Takane’s best friend is Mika. Mika loves literature. Mika learns that the author of a favourite book of hers is actually the librarian at her local branch. This writer, Namie has given up writing. Namie and Mika begin spending time together. This puts a strain on Takane and Mika’s relationship. Their friendship was deepening towards romance. But while Takane’s feelings remain, Mika’s romantic interest has transferred to the adult Namie.

The big tragedy of my watching of Finding the Adolescence is that the only version I found had deeply questionable subtitles. I regret that I did not get a better representation of the dialogue than a lot of broken English and incorrect translations. This is a simple story, so I’m giving it the benefit of the doubt that the original dialogue isn’t overtly awful. Even without accurate subtitles, Finding the Adolescence still tells a completely understandable story. The visuals of this simple tale are clear enough that you can definitely make out the major story beats. You could watch Finding the Adolescence on mute at the dentist and still come away understanding the basic plot.

I cannot stress how low the stakes are in this film. It’s just a depiction of the changes in a relationship between two girls. And accurate to real life, it doesn’t take a major event to change a teen relationship. The film seems to understand that about teens; that they’ll have a pretty intense emotional response to even minor issues. Because of this, Finding the Adolescence feels like a good depiction of girlhood and one I can relate to. Experiencing jealousy, attraction and heartbreak at that age can be triggered by nothing more than a throwaway sentence or look.

The other thing that makes this film feel realistic and successful is the depiction of unrequited love and idealization. Despite Takane and Mika rushing headfirst into a romance at the start, that never occurs. When Takane kisses Mika, Mika is horrified and rejects Takane pretty brutally. And Mika’s rejection is not based on Takane being a girl. It’s because Mika’s love is reserved for Namie. Of course, her relationship with Namie never goes anywhere. Namie is an adult so Mika continues to pine for her. This was heartbreaking to see but also really good. Mika ultimately chooses the safer choice. An ideal, fantasy relationship with Namie is better to her than the messy realities of an actual relationship with Takane. Mika chooses her safe fantasy over the option for something real and imperfect.

Finding the Adolescence is a low-stakes portrait of a teen friendship that falls apart. There are many beats in this film that I’ve seen before and a good amount of filler content as well. But as far as films where nothing much happens in them, Finding the Adolescence is one of the better ones. It’s nice to look at and has very clear visual storytelling. The subtly of the film also allows a closer look at smaller, yet nonetheless important moments in a teenager’s life. This is not the most exciting WLW film by any means. But if you need a sort of gentle relationship tragedy, Finding the Adolescence fits that bill.

Overall rating: 5.6/10

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