A Few Thoughts on “THE MELT”

“THE MELT” is now out.
This time, the story follows the growth of a first-year student, Nagisa Mitsuhashi.

▶ Watch “THE MELT” on YouTube

It is about her relationship with Marin, the senior she has feelings for, of course. But it also steps into a bigger theme: “What is acting?”

The line that mattered most to me personally is something Marin says:
“If you don’t have the courage yourself, then just act it.”

An actor is someone who becomes somebody other than themselves, and delivers words and emotions.
If you don’t have the courage to speak as yourself, you can become someone else and deliver it that way.

I love comedy, and I still remember something Hitoshi Matsumoto of the duo Downtown said a long time ago.
Doing sketches as himself was embarrassing, so he would build a character and perform as that person.

Back then, he was playing a character called Garara Nyororo on the TV show “Yume de Aetara.”
What stuck with me was Matsumoto saying that Teruyoshi Uchimura of Utchan Nanchan was the same.
Both of them are sketch comedians who have played all kinds of characters in their sketches, and it turns out that was part of the reason.

Lately I have also been watching a lot of Key & Peele, the famous American sketch comedy duo.
They, too, build a completely different person for every sketch, so thoroughly that while I am laughing, I also find myself admiring the character work.
Jordan Peele went on to succeed as a film director as well.
“Get Out” was wonderful.

Overseas, many actors study Method acting as the foundation of their craft, but in Japan I think there are few chances to properly study acting theory.
I am someone who believes theater should be studied as literature, but the high school Nagisa attends is not like that.

So these girls try to build a theory of acting on their own, feeling their way forward.
Sometimes that leads to mistakes, and sometimes to a new theory of acting that no one had reached yet. There are many interesting discoveries along the way.

In the film, they rehearse in an unusual way, but for Marin, that too is an important process.
For pure, innocent Nagisa, though, it is a lot to take in.
How will Nagisa grow from here, and what will become of her love for Marin? I hope you will watch over them.

BUZZ