After waking from a haunting dream with debilitating neck pain, a woman struggles through a day where ordinary movements become an unbearable challenge. As she attempts to navigate her morning routine and care for her lively young daughter, memories and dreams begin to intertwine, pulling her into a surreal exploration of the past and present. Vivid recollections of a childhood friend, now deceased, surface alongside a haunting dream of figures endlessly bowing and the reality of people rushing to work. These fragments of memory and imagination echo the weight of loss, motherhood, and the strain of existence. Unable to lift her head, even to glimpse the sky above, the woman is forced to confront the delicate balance between the routine of life and the pain of holding herself upright, as others are able to, in a crumbling world.

Towards the end of Momoe Narazaki’s short graphic novel I Will Go Ahead, from which A Very Straight Neck is adapted, the protagonist resists being hardened by the world. She peels her scab and enters a dark, surreal place—a circus of people “smiling, working, living.” Though tempted to return, she achieves liberation and literally steps out of the frame. Through simple illustrations, Narazaki evokes a visceral story of a body—one that feels the hidden violence in daily life. Actor Sakura Ando, with her heightened sensitivity to the mechanics of (e)motion in her own body, was perfect to embody this story. The body is a sensitive vessel. It takes the beating of routine and can get bent out of shape. Why must we live in a system that holds our livelihoods hostage to violence? And is there truly a way out? This film is an exploration of these feelings.

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