We Are Aliens

From Viennale

Kadowaki Kohei’s debut animation feature WE ARE ALIENS is a tale about the fragility of friendship and the shadow of betrayal. Tsubasa and Gyotaro, two boys with personalities as different as the blue and yellow of their respective t-shirts, are inseparable at school. But a series of events erodes their friendship, driving them apart. Told through flashbacks, the story reveals not just their distinct perspectives on the same objective facts, but—more crucially—how each boy perceives the other in a wholly different way. WE ARE ALIENS begins in nocturnal landscapes, echoing Wong Kar-wai’s moody aesthetics, before soon morphing into sunnier, softer territories. The film’s visual style shifts to accommodate the story’s different stages, distortions and outcomes—turning the ravaging effects of time into a central theme. Mixing the realism of rotoscopic animation with the expressive use of lines, colours and compositions, the film takes us on a bittersweet journey from the wonders of friendship and innocence to the devastating consequences of bullying and trauma. It is ultimately a meditation on how the people we love best can become the strangers we understand least. (Cristina Álvarez López)