#nakajima yuto

(warning: spoilers ahead!)

Cast:

Nakajima Yuto: “Shiraki Rengo”/ Kawatori Dai
Suda Masaki: “Kawata Daiki”/ Naruse Ryo
Yagira Yuya: Shiraki Rengo
Kaho: “Ishikawa Sally”/ Mikami Rei 

Pink and Gray begins with Kawata Daiki (later Kawatori Dai), who has just moved into the neighbourhood. He meets Suzuki Shingo (later Shiraki Rengo) and Sally, and the three old them become good friends.

Opportunity strikes upon Kawata and Suzuki one day when a fashion editor scouts them to become fashion models. Suzuki, with his talent and affinity with showbiz, soon became a movie star, while Kawata eases himself into the background, becoming a supporting character of sorts to Suzuki. At this point, Suzuki adopts the stage name Shiraki Rengo, while Kawata continues to struggle with deciding on his stage name.

As Shiraki rises to fame, the crack in their friendship deepens. After their first quarrel, however, the two of them mend their friendship very fast. But happiness is cut short when Shiraki, who promises to help Kawata become famous, commits suicide by hanging himself. He leaves six versions of his will to Kawata, and “trusts that he will choose the best one”.

But here comes the plot twist.

As Kawata wails while hugging the motionless body of Shiraki, the director steps in—we now know that everything up till this point has been a movie. The “Shiraki” we knew up to this point is actually played by the real Kawata—now Kawatori Dai, whereas “Kawata” is actually played by Naruse Ryo, an actor. “Sally” is also played by actress Mikami Rei.

Observant viewers will also realise that the screen has turned gray. This is important, and I will give my analysis on what this symbolises.

Up till before the greyscale, we see colours— vibrant, lively. Because I had no prior knowledge about this film, I didn’t know what I was in for, so imagine my shock when the director walked in. The title of the film then comes to mind—Pink and Gray. The colours of the film takes centre stage in the story.

Scenes shot in colour, or “Pink”, depicts the vibrant lives the two main characters supposedly have. Shiraki is depicted as a helpful friend, while Kawatori is the loyal, supportive one. The movie is adapted from a biography written by Kawatori for Shiraki, which is actually one of the instructions from the six wills left behind by Shiraki. Kawatori chose it because he thought this would be what Shiraki wants best.

However, on the pretense of fulfilling his best friend’s last wish, neither the movie nor the book was ever about Shiraki. Instead, they are used by Kawatori to showcase himself. He wants to show the audience how great and supportive of a friend he was—in other words, his good side. The movie is nothing but full of self-praise.

This explains why Naruse later tells Kawatori that the film is “boring”. He also observes that the movie may not have reflected the reality fully. I believe that his keen observation stems from him being an actor, and he is spot-on—the film is not the truth.

So what is the truth? The answer lies in the scenes in “Grey”. Here we finally see the kind of person each character really is. Naruse is a jerk, Sally is meek, and most importantly the fact that Kawatori is not as loyal and supportive a friend he portrays himself to be. Instead, Kawatori loathes being outshined by Shiraki and hates that Shiraki wants to run his life. Kawatori is not grateful for the chances Shiraki gave him and instead finds them burdensome. His frustration towards Shiraki is later shown when he slashes and destroys Shiraki’s portrait.

Shiraki is not that pure either. As Kawatori would later discover, Shiraki was a regular patron at a strip club, and even more shocking was that he, as hinted in the film, was in an incestuous relationship with his older sister. In the beginning when Shiraki’s sister commits suicide, I wondered why this is even important. It is then revealed that Shiraki had specifically chosen to die on the same day as his sister.

This begs the question. Why grey? I noticed that the scenes shot in greyscale were very dark with minimal lighting. A lot of details in the scene were hidden. These reflect the fact that Kawatori has things to hide—his true personality.

Both Pink and Grey tell the same story but from a different point of view. Pink is a lie weaved by Kawatori to fool the audience into believing that he is a kind person, but as Naruse pointed out, this is not true. Grey shows the ugly truth, and this is something Kawatori doesn’t want to own up to.

It is interesting to note that Kawatori is seen smiling most of the time in Pink, but he has never even smiled once in Grey. He wanted to believe the lie he has fabricated, but alas it didn’t work, as shown by how unhappy he truly is in Grey—in reality.

Kawatori later mentions that he didn’t want to be Shiraki anymore, and yet we see him attempting to hang himself the same way Shiraki did. Kawatori has always believed that Shiraki is the cause of his misery, but I think that on the contrary, he is the one making himself miserable—he claims to not want to live in Shiraki’s shadow any longer, yet he couldn’t resist the temptation of becoming Shiraki—successful and famous. If he were really resistant of living under Shiraki’s shadows, why would he agree to take on the role of Shiraki in the movie?

What Kawatori fails to see is that Shiraki had his own set of problems as well. He is not happier than before he made it big, but Shiraki only saw the glamorous side of his life.

In the end, Kawatori reconciles with the truth after facing Shiraki in his hallucination, and as Shiraki tells him, it is okay that they do not understand each other. The film then gradually turns from grey to pink, signifying that Kawatori is no longer hiding the truth, and is now brave enough to show his true self. Truth has come to light.

Nakajima, Suda and Yagira have all served up pretty solid acting this time round. In particular for Nakajima and Suda, who had to switch up their characters in the second half of the film, and they made it convincing enough. Nakajima went from the confident “Shiraki” to the unhappy Kawatori, whereas Suda went from the supportive “Kawata” to the evil Naruse. Props to both actors for being able to transition smoothly from one character to another.

Verdict: Pink and Gray is a compelling piece with an awesome plot twist. Recommended!

(Note: some nudity, depiction of suicide and sex. Not suitable for younger audiences)

*Gray and Grey: Gray is American English, while Grey is British. I use British spelling in my writing, but decided not to change the title of the film. I hope this doesn’t confuse anyone!