#route29

現実から浮きそうな大人と子供のふたりが、姫路から鳥取までの国道29号線をたどる幻想的ロードムービー

Kentucky Route Zeroを彷彿とさせる設定なので見に行った。

思った以上にシュールな画としずかでスローなところ、そしてあいまいな死の気配がただよってるところがいい。

旅の最後が鳥取砂丘だから勝利！

とてもよかった。

公式HPのあらすじや画面みていいと思ったなら見たほうがいいと思う。

以下、ネタバレ込みのまとまりのない感想

鳥取市や姫路市の路地や商店街やその間をつなぐ現実の国道沿いの景色を舞台にしながら、現実から浮かぶようなシュールでふしぎな絵が思った以上に多い。現代の日本の地方・郊外を舞台としてこういう映画の絵が撮られていること、ほんとに貴重。

かれらの特性から主人公たちが人間社会から遊離しかけている不安や危うさも、どこまでも現実だけれどすこしへんなシュールな日本のまちのなかで描かれることで、そんなものもあるんだろうと不安感すくなく見れたことが映像表現として秀逸。

前半の台詞、「トンボ」というあだ名の呼びかけ以外、ほとんど言葉のやりとりに意味がないのよかったな。煙草を一緒にふかしたり、見つめるだけのほうが雄弁なコミュニケーションで、映像を見てる意味がある。包み込むような自然音もよかった。

後半は主人公が言葉に意味が乗せられるようになって、すこし言葉をつむいでるところが見てて安心した。

旅での交流により主人公が生きる力を回復していくあたたかいヒューマンドラマのようにプロモーションされてるし、そういう面もあるけれど、それにおさまりきらない多くが画面にこめられているように見えた。

道中で描かれる交流は、騙されたり、監視されたり、わかれたり、突き放されたり、届かなかったりと、やさしくはないことが多いけれど、それでもきびしすぎず、どこかであたたかみもあるところが、いまの自分が見てちょうどいい温度感だった。

最後にトンボが警察に捕まったあとまで描いたところ驚いたし、人間社会という牢獄にとらわれ生きていくというそのままの意味なのだろうけど、それは絶望や悲しみではなくて、旅を経た彼女の選択の結果だから、この先の彼女にとってわるくないことなのだと観客として信じられるように思う。

だから人間社会も旅での交流と同様にやさしいばかりでなく厳しいばかりでもなく、それゆえ社会の象徴である警察も悪の存在として戯画化されずに淡々とふつうに仕事をしているように描かれていて、そういう存在に囲まれて生きていく感じ。現実なら執行猶予つきそうと思ったのは秘密。

役者さんはみんなよかった。ハル役の子の型にはまらないところがあっても自然でつよさを感じる佇まいが印象的。

なんとなく、死と生を峻別しない感じや幻想的な雰囲気ふくめてすきな感じだったので、見に行ってよかった。

Kentucky Route Zeroはケンタッキー州の高速道路沿いを舞台に実在の場所や地理、現実のモチーフをそのまま幻想を交えて描くけれど、ルート29でも日本の国道沿いを舞台に同じく幻想を交えた現実の風景を描く。

住み慣れた・見慣れた馴染みの風景に幻想を交えてシュールに描くことが喚起する感情、KRZがアメリカに住む人たちに与えうる感情を、日本を舞台とした本作を見ることでリアルに実感することができて発見だった。

KRZでケンタッキー州在住者のレビューがはっきり肯定と否定がわかれるのを見ていたけれど、日本の地方を舞台にしてシュールな情景を描く本作を見て、なんとなくその気持ちがわかるような気がした。

その土地のことのようでいて、その土地のことではないようなもの。おなじ場所に住み続けて抱く気持ちは、都市も田舎もいつも複雑。

見るきっかけとなった日経新聞のレビュー・監督インタビュー

日経新聞の文化欄、短くてすごくいい記事があるからあなどれない。

Professor Elm gets to do the Disclaimer!

Professor Elm: gothchic6 doesn't own Pokémon, and does not make any money off of this. But she does own Calypso.

Calypso: How many times do I have to tell you, I am not owned by anyone!

gothchic6: Yes, you are. I own you, which would be illegal if you were a real person. But you're not, so…

Calypso: *Punches nearby tree, and makes all of the bark fall off of the trunk*

Professor Elm: Calypso, don't hurt nature!

gothchic6: Calypso! Now look what you did!

Calypso: *Stomps off*

***

I Kick Butt, Make An Enemy, and Two Friends:

We are now walking into Route 29. I see a secluded spot over by some trees, and decide that it would be a great place to introduce Cyndi to Spirit. Cyndi and I go over to the spot.

"Okay, Cyndi, I'm going to introduce you to my other Pokémon, Spirit. She's kinda timid, so if she attacks you for no reason, it's because she's never been in this kind of area before, and has never met any other Pokémon,” I explain. 

Cyndi nods, and prepares herself by hiding herself in a bush so Spirit won't know she's there right away.

I let out Spirit, who has been in her Pokéball for about 2 hours now. She looks glad to be out; she's flapping her wings excitedly, and surveying her surroundings. 

"Hey, Spirit! How are you, girl?" Spirit caws happily, while perching on tree branch near my head. 

"I guess you like our new scenery? When you think about it, a sunny, sandy place like Cianwood is no place for a forest dwelling Pokémon like you." 

Spirit nods, and plucks a berry off of the branch she's sitting on. I like berries. They are natural Pokémon food that you don't have to pay for. The one that Spirit's eating now looks like one of those Leppa Berries.

"Okay, Spirit, don't freak out, but we have a new member on our team." Spirit looks towards me, interest in her eyes. 

"You ready to meet our newest member?" Spirit swallows the Leppa Berry, flies over onto my shoulder, and makes a squawking noise that I assume to be yes.

"Cyndi, come on out!" Cyndi walks out of the bush, and over to Spirit and I. 

Spirit jumps off my shoulder, and right in front of Cyndi. The two are having an epic stare down that I could never do myself because of my nonexistent attention span. It lasts for about 30 seconds before Spirit makes a clucking noise, and extends her wing to Cyndi. Cyndi grabs a hold of it with her paw, and they shake. Awww, it's like a initiation ceremony!

"Now that we're all acquainted, let's go train!" I run off into the grass, with both Cyndi and Spirit following me.

After about 2 minutes of running through the tall grass, a Rattata jumps out. It attempts to tackle Cyndi. 

"Cyndi, look out for the Rattata!" Cyndi manages to dodge it. 

"Use leer!" Cyndi glares at the Rattata, making it nervous, and less defensive. 

"Now, use your tackle attack!" Cyndi pretty much jumps on top of the poor creature. She sits on it until it stops struggling. 

"Yay, Cyndi, you defeated your first Pokémon!" Cyndi and I do a very elaborate victory dance.

I barely have time to look over towards Spirit, when a Pidgey flies out from behind a tree, and sends a gust towards her. 

"Spirit, watch out!" She doesn't hear me early enough, and gets hit dead on. 

"Spirit, are you okay?" She recovers from the gust quickly, and nods. 

"Okay, Spirit, use Faint Attack!" Spirit fades into darkness, and while the Pidgey is looking for her, she strikes. It's a critical hit! The Pidgey faints. 

"Yeah! Yay Spirit! You just kicked the crap out of your first Pokémon!" Spirit chirps in both pride and amusement.

So Spirit, Cyndi, and I go through Route 29, beating up any wild Pokémon stupid enough to come less than 2 feet away from us. All of us are tired by the time we get to Cherrygrove. Not to mention, hungry. My stomach makes that Wailord mating call noise that annoys me so much. I look over to Cyndi and Spirit, and sure enough, both of their stomachs are growling, too. "Hungry?" They both nod. "Let's go find the Pokémon Center."

It takes us five minutes to find the Pokémon Center. When we get there, it's already dark. 

"Come on, chicks, get into your Pokéballs. Nurse Joy needs to heal you guys. Then we'll get a room for the night, and some food. Sound good?" They both grin and nod.

They go back into their Pokéballs, and I walk into the building. I hear a grunt coming from behind the counter, but no one is there. 

"Welcome to the Pokémon Center. I'll be with you in just a moment", the voice says, from who I realize must be one of the many Nurse Joys. I walk to the counter and look behind it, only to see Nurse Joy's behind. 

"You're really lucky there's not a hormonal teenaged pervert here, because if there was, he would have seen quite a sight." 

She jumps up, a blush on her face, and profusely apologizes. 

"Hey, it's okay, you didn't know. Just try and wear some shorts under that dress, unless you want people staring at your undies", I suggest to her. 

She chuckles, and I can see that she's younger than most Nurse Joys. Probably a year or two older than me. "Thanks. Now what can I help you with", she asks me.

I hand her the Pokéballs containing Spirit and Cyndi. "I need you to heal these two, and I need a room for the night." 

She takes the Pokéballs, and puts them in the healing machine. Within a few seconds, they are healed. "Here you go. They're all healed. As for the room, you'll have to share with someone else, we are so busy at the moment", she says. 

"How much will it cost", I ask, hoping I will have enough. 

"Well, normally it would be a fee of 300 dollars, but since you told me about my little panty problem, I'll take a third of it off." 

"Really? Thanks!" 

"No problem. Here, follow me", she says as she starts to walk down a narrow hallway. I follow her.

On the way to the room, I ask her a question I've always wanted answered. "Are all of the Nurse Joys really named Joy?" 

She giggles, and says, "You know, you're the first person to ask me that. But, yes, we are all named Joy. But we all have nicknames to tell each other apart, for times when there is more one Nurse Joy in the same area", she explains. 

"Ah, that makes sense… What's your nickname?" She smiles. "It's JC. For Joy Cameron." 

"Cool, JC, my name's Calypso." 

"That's an interesting name", she tells me. 

"Yeah, I think my mom was drunk when she named me." JC laughs.

JC opens the door to a room that has stuff in it, but no people. 

"Another girl is staying in this room with you. She's out with friends at the moment, but when she comes back, I'll tell her that she's sharing with you." JC makes a strange expression, almost as if she wants to say something, but doesn't think it would be appropriate.

"Hey, I know you wanna say something, so just say it." 

JC looks to see if anyone is nearby, and shuts the door behind us. "I don't normally talk to or talk about customers like this. In fact, it's against my rules as a nurse", she looks at me nervously, "but I couldn't live with myself if I didn't warn you about…", she pauses to grimace, "Monica." 

"What's the deal with this girl, Monica", I ask, not really caring that both of us are breaking nurse rules. 

"Well… let's just say she's not the most pleasant of people." 

"Why, what did she do?"

JC grimaces again. "Well, when she first came in, she was with a group of about 5 other people, and they were all talking obnoxiously. I told them to quiet down, because there were people and Pokémon who were trying to rest, and they just started to laugh at me! One of the guys told me to", she whispers so that only I can hear her, "fuck off. It was so rude, I just wanted to throw something at him!"

I am astonished. "Couldn't you kick them out of the Pokémon Center?" 

She shakes her head. "Actually, I'm just a fill-in for the Nurse Joy who normally works here, my cousin, Jojo. I'm normally at the Pokémon Center on Route 32. 

You see, the guy who runs this Pokémon Center is a greedy guy who lets anyone stay here, regardless of their behavior. If he gets a whiff of any kind of complaint, I'll get yelled at, and the person gets a free gift card to one of the restaurants nearby. I can't win."

I just stare at her in disbelief. "This place really needs new management." 

She laughs mirthlessly. "I haven't even told you what Monica did yet." 

"What did she do?" 

“Well, when I told her I wouldn't give her service, she yelled at me, and that woke some of the baby Pokémon up. The boss walked in, and asked what was going on. Needless to say, she ratted me out, I got yelled at and had to calm down baby Pokémon, and she got a free gift card. She's at the restaurant right now, spending it. She's the worst customer I've had in a long time."

"Tell you what, JC. When I go in there, I'll set up a nice surprise for our girl, Monica. They can't prove it was me. That way, you'll get your revenge, and I'll get a laugh out of it." 

She looks at me with both disbelief and excitement. "You would really do that?! Oh my Arceus, I would be your friend for eternity", she says with gratitude. 

I grin at her, and say, "With all that's been talked about, you're already my friend, JC."

So while waiting for the beast known as Monica, I set up my stuff, and start setting up her prank. I always keep things like hair dye and hot sauce in my bag in case someone needs to be taught a lesson. I bought the green hair dye at Goldenrod Department Store, and I stole the hot sauce from Gran. They will do nicely. I painted some of the hot sauce onto some Cinnamon Gum she has in her bag. Then I put the green hair dye inside the salon quality shampoo she has.

I see two Pokéballs on the table, so I let the Pokémon out. A small honey colored bear Pokémon with a crescent moon on it's head, and a little floating grey Ghost Pokémon with awesome crazy hair come out. I stare at them, and they stare at me. Then, the bear attacks me. 

"Ow! Quit!" The ghost goes in front of me, and stops the bear from clawing my face off. 

"Thanks." She smiles at me.

"So you two like Monica? Is she a good trainer?" 

The bear glares at me, and nods. But the ghost shakes her head frantically, and makes a bunch of noises to try and communicate. But I can't understand her. 

She goes over to a picture of Monica and repeatedly beats her head against it. Okay, we'll play charades. "Ummm… she gives you a headache?" She shakes her head, and points to herself and to her, and starts banging her head against the picture again. 

"Uh… Oh my Arceus, she doesn't hit you, does she?" The ghost nods, and starts to cry.

 I hold her, and from this point on, I promise to make Monica's life a living hell in anyway I can.

"Do you want to come with me? I have a Dusk Ball right here, if you want to." 

The Pokémon lets out a cry of relief. She rubs her head against the Dusk ball, and I let her onto my team. 

"So, what should your name be? How about Dusk?" She lets out a little shout of glee, and thus, is now Dusk.

I let out Cyndi and Spirit, and tell them what happened since they went into their Pokéballs. They both smirk, and I introduce them to Dusk. They all like each other. Now, we wait.

It is about another half hour before I hear yelling in the lobby. 

"What do you mean I have to share a room?! Get that girl out, I don't want to share with another chick", a loud, nasally voice screeches. 

I walk out to the lobby, and I see a girl who is the opposite of everything I stand for. 

She has long, curly beach blonde hair. Her eyes are bubble gum pink. Eew. Her face is plastered with makeup, she has sunglasses on her head, and she's wearing all kinds of designer jewelry. Not to mention the extremely short shorts, and her low cut tank top, which obviously contains implants. The only thing that's clean about her is her red flip-flops. 

Yep, from the contents in her bag, that's definitely Monica. No wonder Dusk doesn't like her, she looks like a nightmare. Not to mention, her personality.

I walk up to them, and pull out the Swiss Army knife that I stole from Gran. I start to clean my insanely dirty fingernails with it. 

"Is there a problem here?" Monica looks at my knife with an apprehensive glance, but still manages to say something. 

"And who are you? This is a private conversation", she responds, her voice getting more nasally with each word she speaks.

"I'm the chick you have to share your room with. If you're nice, I won't have to shove my foot up your ass,” I whisper harshly. She looks scared. That's good. 

She walks over toward JC and the counter. "You can't make me share a room with this freak. She'll kill me while I'm sleeping", Monica pleads with JC. 

"Sorry, but there's no other rooms open, and she hasn't given us any reason as to why we should kick her out." JC puts on a professional tone, but I can tell she's screaming with laughter on the inside.

Monica towards both of us, her gaze lingering on me a little longer. 

"Remember, be nice, and no one will get hurt", I assure her. 

When she realizes she isn't going to get a better deal, and that this is the only inn in Cherrygrove, she accepts. She goes back to our room, and I go talk to JC over by the counter.

"Oh my Arceus, that was hilarious. Was that the prank?" 

"No,” I admit, "she's in for much more. By the way, she had a Pokémon that told me that Monica abuses it." 

JC gasps. "That's horrible!" 

I nod. "I know, I took her with me. See the Dusk Ball on my belt? She is so relieved to be free of Monica." 

"I should probably say something about this, but ultimately, you did the right thing, so I'm partially okay with it."

So JC, my Pokémon, and I go into JC's private quarters. It's around 11 pm, so JC's shift is over. She cooks us a nice meal. Then, I hear screaming from my old room, which I had removed my stuff from and vacated as soon as Monica got into the shower. 

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY SHAMPOO!?" 

Both of us giggle, and I hear a door slam open. 

"WHERE IS THAT MISERABLE PUNK GOTH WANNABE?!" 

We both giggle again as we hear people from other rooms start to tell her to shut the fuck up. Many doors slam, and with one last "Arrrgh", and one more door slam, the entire building is silent.

Here are the stats for Calypso's team at the end of this chapter:

Spirit(Murkrow):

Level: 9

Moves: Faint Attack, Peck, Astonish, and Pursuit.

Cyndi(Cyndaquil):

Level: 9

Moves: Tackle, Leer, and Smokescreen.

Dusk(Misdreavus):

Level: 7