Eimi Imanishi One-Up Analysis

Sexuality in One-Up

One-Up is a clever short film directed by Eimi Imanishi that focuses on concepts of sexuality and sexual awakening. It explores a young woman named Hadley's sexuality by focusing on two different kinds of relationships that she has. Her discomfort in specific scenes hints at some of the limitations and standards that are placed on sexuality in our world.

Initially, Hadley appears to be shy and reserved. In the opening scene where she is in the locker room with the other girls, she isn't participating in the discussion. She is simply observing and then she just leaves to go to the rink. The conversation is the first of many nods to the concept of sexuality throughout the film. In the first scene, the discussion is pretty raw and has unfiltered phrases, but that lack of censorship is what makes it feel so real as well. At that age especially, the topic is spoken of with vulgarity and jokes are made. It's a normative condition of society to talk this way and yet Hadley doesn't engage with the other girls at all. She appears completely on the outside of their intimate conversation. I think her inability to connect in this scene is a foreshadowing of Hadley's conflict with her own sexuality. She, like most teenagers and even adults, is not comfortable with her body. It is through …show more content…
The whole vibe comes across as aggressive and disturbing rather than romantic or even seductive. It's not presented as a beautiful, intoxicating scene for the reason that this film as a whole is meant to reveal some of the uncomfortable aspects of sexuality. The very fact that it's centered on this girl who is sort of experimenting and trying out different things in her love life shows why this film can't be like the thousands of other movies about a teenage girl. Most stories would probably give her a dramatic love story and then turn it into a love triangle, followed by a possible pregnancy