Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso (Your Lie in April) Episode 5

This episode had many captivating moments that pull you into investing yourself into these characters. These moments were primarily constituted of effective use of unbalanced framing, tight/extreme close ups and timely insert shots.

The Hospital Scene

The mini-flashback starts with an insert shot of Kousei pressing the piano key. This drives the point that he did try playing but still unable to hear his own music. The extreme close up of his eyes is to show him envisioning his performance with Kaori that he wants to recreate. Another insert shot of his finger hitting the key shows how out of reach that moment is. Seeing him repeatedly hitting the key only to just hear a thud adds so much melancholy to this sequence. The extreme close up of his ear is a visual of the sound of the piano not reaching him. All of these insert shots and close ups serve as emotional build up to when it finally cuts to an evocatively sad full-shot of him covering his ears. This last shot is also an unbalanced one (small lead room), which creates a visual of his seclusion from his music.

Also, the camera was shaky and was shifting in and out of focus. The combination of these effects, created an unnerving feeling that emphasized Kousei’s struggle and pain.

The dialogue after the flashback refrained from showing the characters’ full face until the end of scene. This made the dialogue, voice acting and the body language of the characters the main focus. With just the body in view the movements become more expressive. Kaori slightly shifting shows her interest on why Kousei isn’t playing the piano, and Kousei responding with that little shrug expresses discouragement. Again, everything serves as an emotional set-up for the full shot when Kaori asks Kousei if he will be able to forget their performance.

"I won’t forget"

In this sequence insert shots are used in conjunction with a POV tracking shot. This time the shaky cam and shifting of focus worked together to simulate not only Kousei’s running motion but also his excitement. The running footsteps with rainwater splashing, the door bursting open, and the turning of the door knob all culminate to the moment when he looks at his piano with passion in his eyes.

This part of the scene strongly broke the rule of thirds but it worked quite well. The shots framing the characters at the far side provided contrast for the last shot, which is centered. This contrast augmented the importance of the centered shot, where Kaori faints. The use of rays of light as diagonal leading lines also made the far sided shots feel less unbalanced by directing the viewers’ eyes to the subject. Diagonal lines also tend to make a shot feel more dynamic, which fits uplifting feeling of this sequence.