I found some gems at this year’s annual Tribeca Film Festival. Uncovering hidden treasures is always a fun experience, and this festival tends to feature something perfect or semi-perfect in nearly every short film. This time around, Saki Muramoto’s animated short, A Night at the Rest Area, is one of the few shorts that have piqued my interest thus far. While I have not been to a rest stop in the United States since 2005 or 2008—I stopped keeping track since then—, A Night at the Rest Area appears to be a clear indication that Japan is a different socio-economic machine than the United States.
The short film centers a rest area where travelers find a place to rest and relax. And a brief encounter with complete strangers offers comfort for the lonely. A Night at the Rest Area is written, directed, and animated by Muramoto, with the artwork assisted by Yuki Maehata. The eleven-and-a-half-minute short is a beautiful moving picture of anthropomorphic animals, each slowly navigating their way around a rest area and keeping alert through food, drink, and lavatory duties before their bus’s departure at 1:50 A.M. Both Muramoto-san and Maehata-san illustrate the landscape-like images wonderfully, juxtaposing the dark-blue nighttime atmosphere with well-lit interiors. It’s easy to appreciate the intricate details of the animation in what is, at first glance, a simplistic aspect of Japanese traveling as a whole.
Unpacking the Difference in Travel
The travel experience in the United States has made quite an impression in Western media, from Harold Ramis and John Hughes’ National Lampoon’s Vacation to Disney’s A Goofy Movie to Brian Levant’s Are We There Yet?, wherein the adventure of being on the road with a family results in a level of hijinks that only Americans may find delight in.
That is not to mention other U.S. road trip movies that rely on unimaginable scenarios, such as The Hills Have Eyes, Dumb and Dumber, the Wrong Turn movies, Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, Little Miss Sunshine, We’re the Millers, and The Mitchells vs. the Machines. From this perspective, road trip movies constitute a niche subgenre and are often exaggerated to convey a loud and intense impression. This alone is evidence of the American lifestyle, that going from place to place requires having a purpose.
I don’t get that impression from A Night at the Rest Area, a short film wherein passersby fulfill similar yet quieter needs. I actually believe that the firsthand experience of traveling by bus in the Philippines and Japan offered me deeper insight into varying Asian lifestyles. Traveling is closely associated with tourism, such as in the case of a character entering a lavatory with a camera slung around their neck. However, others treat traveling a little more seriously.
With Muramoto-san’s film, specifically, there is an order and a structure to the way things are in Japan. The rows of vehicles, or kuruma, parked at the rest area’s parking lot, the string of vending machines with recycling bins and trash containers to the side, the long hallway flanked by restroom (otearai) stalls, and the little convenience store where an attendant is subtly shown stocking drinks in a fridge in the background. When I see the attendant here, my mind returns to Sayaka Murata’s 2016 novel, Convenience Store Woman, following a 36-year-old woman who has conditioned herself to know the ins and outs of the konbini, or convenience store.
The filmmaker accurately depicts the different senses of purpose in one traveler rushing to return to their bus with an onigiri—a rice ball—, while another takes their time bringing a bowl of ramen from the vending machine corner to their car. Even the arrangement of characters signals structure. A Night at the Rest Area exhibits three characters sitting on a bench, while several others form a semi-circle by the vending machines. There seems to be nothing wrong with Japan’s socio-economic system, and I truly admire its ability to maintain greatness for the world to see.
Final Thoughts
I have no complaints to offer with A Night at the Rest Area. Not much excitement happens, but that is pretty much the idea if viewers step into the shoes of tired individuals, or even characters with responsibilities or a lack thereof. Sound designer and music composer Saya Kikuchi’s work with the audio components is small but lovely. The breezy gusts of wind and the playful instrumental as one vending machine prepares a bowl of ramen are beautiful in helping deliver Muramoto-san’s idea of a relaxing motion picture—a harmonious blend of this and that suggests that everything is going to be okay.
A Night at the Rest Area is now playing at Tribeca.
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
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