Yû Irie’s A Girl Named Ann is a humane and sensitive look at the struggles the vulnerable face in escaping their desperate situation. Full of devastatingly emotional moments, Yuumi Kawai is remarkable in this challenging but necessary watch.
Kagawa Ann (Yuumi Kawai) has endured a traumatic childhood as a primary school dropout, abused by her mother, and forced to care for her grandmother. When she is one day interrogated on a charge of drug usage, the encounter takes a surprisingly constructive turn when Detective Tatara (Jiro Sato) opts to try and help rehabilitate Ann instead of allowing her to spiral further. Lowering her guard and allowing the support, she begins to rebuild her life until a combination of the coronavirus and a scandal potentially throw all of that good work up in the air.
A Girl Named Ann is as bleak a look into the struggles of a young recovering addict as you will see this year. Director Yû Irie has ensured that as few rays of positivity have eeked their way through onto Ann as possible, and even when those rays do come upon her, they are usually squashed and swatted away in a cruel manner that shatters you. An early example of this is Ann, finally having some adult encouragement other than from her grandmother, deciding against stealing and instead buying, even treating her family with something as simple as a few slices of cake for them to share, thanks to her first every paycheck. Irie allows that hopefulness to crawl into your heart for Ann, and we see how much such a small gesture spurs her. However, this is based on a true story, and instead, it wants to batter us down emotionally. Goodness, does it hammer you?
With a film so full of darkness and misery, it would be easy for A Girl Named Ann to just revel in it. However, there is a supreme sensitivity to the film that pulls you in. Irie isn’t just interested in showing how hopeless this situation is; he wants to show how when someone does get the appropriate help, they can beat the odds against them. It is only when that support structure is swiped away in the fashion that Ann’s is that you see how authorities fail the most vulnerable in our society.
Irie keeps everything rather restrained in A Girl Named Ann. He wants the film to feel as close to a documentary as possible. Removing as much melodrama as possible, which those of lesser talent would have preferred to have plucked for. Here, it takes a soft approach to all of the moments. When those moments that swing back like a punch to the gut to Ann arrive, it’s taken with a softness that you would not expect, almost as if it is a quiet expectation of these moments occurring. At times, it is truly tough to keep going with the film, but that has been done on purpose by Irie; for the most part, what has been included in the film is true, and it haunts you that not anyone goes through this, but that many still are.
The continual setbacks in Ann’s ascent into a normal life wear upon you as a viewer. You simply cannot work out how she will catch a break, and you cling onto the hope that she can overcome all of these debilitating obstacles. Yuumi Kawai gives a tremendously sensitive and heart-rending performance as Ann. You are broken for her, and she has the audience in the palm of her hand as she navigates through the story. We see the intricacy in her performance as she devastates you.
Sato uses his charisma to power through the complicated nature of Detective Tatara. It’s a challenging role to nail correctly with how his story fleshes out; however, he manages it with aplomb and with his fascinating performance. Equally, as journalist Kirino, Gorô Inagaki gave us a complicated performance. He is reporting on something particular, but he cannot help but be pulled into Ann’s story. He wants to help her, to get her out of that cycle, but life, depressingly so, is never that easy. Aoba Kawai is as close to a villain as a film like this can get. She is a lost soul who only knows how to bring those close to her down to her level. With each reappearance in A Girl Named Ann that we get of her, your heart sinks for poor Ann, as no good comes from this daughter seeing her destructive mother.
It’s a film that is full of pain and injustice, yet Irie tries to give us some form of hope with his final scene, although Ann and countless others like her have gone through something like this. Their suffering doesn’t have to continue with the next generation; if luck and proper support are there to give them a chance to live a normal life, at one point, you will find yourself cursing the authorities for leaving people like Ann behind in the manner that they do. Left to either sink or swim, people like Ann are left to the wayside in an entirely fixable situation.
While difficult, A Girl Named Ann is wonderfully and tactfully made. It is a diamond of a film that, despite its sorrowful tone, should be a warning to authorities to ensure that people like Ann do not fall through the cracks, no matter the circumstances. This film serves as a powerful reminder of the urgency and responsibility we all share in preventing such societal failures.
★★★★★
The Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme 2025 takes place in cinemas around the UK from 7 February – 31 March 2025.
For further information: https://www.jpf-film.org.uk/
