Kazuaki Seki’s follow up to the bombastic Office Royale (Which I also reviewed) is a touching bittersweet coming of age story that just screened at Fantasia. Blank Canvas: My So-Called Artist’s Journey follows young Akiko (Mei Nagano), who has wanted nothing more since she was a small child than to be a manga artist. This has the high schooler pondering attending art school, for that extra air of respectability, if and when she achieves her dream. When she discovers from a classmate the competitive nature of applying for art college in Japan after high school – essentially you’re charged with auditioning and crafting your art on the spot. She enrolls in a fine art prep program hosted by Hidaka-sensei (Yo Oizumi) a self taught fine art painter and constant curmudgeon, who rules over his classes with a bamboo sword.
Even through his brash teaching style the pair form an unlikely mentorship and eventual friendship. The film thankfully is from a more reflective point of view, many years after the fact as Akiko, now an established mangaka is being presented with an award for her documenting her time with Hidaka-sensei in manga form. That retrospective POV allows Akiko to show some gained perspective on her once lazy college days that she squandered along with her regrets when it came to her friendship with Hidaka-sensei. There’s a heartfelt melancholy as we soon discover why her teacher is no longer part of her life and what drove her to craft this loving portrait.
As we hear our storyteller’s perspective on the events unfolding, it’s not hard to discern the outcome. But that said films like this aren’t about the destination but about the journey and this journey is not only filled with joy, but the kind of lessons you don’t really understand until years later.
While Kazuaki hasn’t lost a beat when it comes to comedy, the film deals out its more touching moments without devolving into a turgid tearjerker. The film is extremely careful about how it builds this relationship on screen as to be not too familial or romantic, which was a refreshing change of pace, since there’s not a whole lot of films that explore the mentorship dynamic in a platonic space. Even when Akiko falls for a handsome schoolmate, she thankfully never abandons her agency as a character, the film is solely focused on her path. The culmination of this journey will no doubt make you feel all the feelings with its so real it hurts finale, that I was not prepared for.
Blank Canvas was a hilarious and wholehearted exploration of a mentorship/friendship forged over decades that will charm the hell out of you. I also applaud the fact that the film managed to keep that relationship at the core of the film a platonic one, thankfully avoiding the questionable dynamic that seems to creep into these narratives. Instead we have an undefiled story about a male mentor who will do anything to help his female protege succeed, even some very well deserved tough love. I simply adored everything about Blank Canvas from its characters, to their stories and how it really hammered home one of my favorite quotes: “We do not learn from experience… we learn from reflecting on experience.”
