Train Man (Densha Otoko) (2005) is a romantic drama directed by Murakami Shosuke, and stars Yamada Takayuki as the protagonist (known as Train_Man; his username on the online forums which he frequents and which play a large role in the film), and Nakatani Miki as the love interest (referred to as Hermess, because of a set of Hermès cups she sends as a thank-you gift to Train_Man.)
Purportedly based on a true story, the film follows the protagonist, Train_Man, as he struggles to woo a woman whom he saved from being accosted by a drunkard on a train. Train_Man is an otaku (a Japanese term referring to someone who is an obsessive fan of something, primarily video games, manga, etc) in his early twenties, who has never had a girlfriend and spends his time either at work, where he is a computer engineer, shopping for toys, or at home on the computer. Cripplingly, unbelievably shy, Train_Man attempts to stand up to an intoxicated businessman on the train home one day, and later receives a thank-you gift from the woman the businessman was harassing. He relates the story to his anonymous friends online (anonymous to himself and to each other, but revealed to the audience as being an angsty teenage boy, a possibly early-thirties man, a similarly aged woman, a meek female nurse pining over a lost love, and three more otaku who spend seemingly all of their time in an internet café of some sort, reading comics and playing video games). His friends initially brush it off as a semi-exciting but unimportant encounter, until hearing that the woman has sent Hermès cups, which they unanimously deem “too expensive to be just a thank-you”, and they encourage Train_Man to pursue “Hermess”. What ensues is a haircut and new clothes for Train_Man, and an awkward courtship with Hermess, Train_Man faltering and stumbling and being nervously sweaty every step of the way.
Train Man revolves largely around internet usage, and text plays a huge role throughout the film, as (with the exception of Train_Man and Hermess) the only communication between the main characters is done via typing online. Much of the exposition in the introduction is presented with text appearing in windows and on signs in various shots, as Train_Man narrates and explains who he is. Throughout the film, different words and key points are highlighted through similarly appearing text, or typed emoticons, used commonly in online forums to convey different emotions. In one instance, the climactic and final word of an important line is not even uttered, but is merely shown being typed into an online entry on a computer screen. All of the lines from the characters interacting with each other online are narrated transcripts of their conversation in the forum, and often their text will be shown as they speak as well. When Train_Man’s friends are goading him on as he talks on the phone with Hermess, their encouragement is expressed not through speech, as most of their interactions are presented (though, again, sometimes along with aforementioned text), but through a shot of increasingly large and excited looking words appearing on a forum thread on Train_Man’s nearby computer screen. This shot may just be a simple a point of view shot from Train_Man’s perspective–this is, after all, what he really is looking at as he speaks to Hermess on the phone–but it is also a representation of his team of friends as the single, intangible, anonymous entity that they are. The rest of their interactions are generally shown with more typically film-appropriate dialogue: talking and shots of their faces (even if the other participants in the conversation don’t see or hear them) but this is possibly the only instance in which the characters are shown as only text on a screen, as they would appear to each other.
Another large theme of the movie, which again ties back into internet usage and culture, is reliability vs. reliance. Train_Man’s network of friends help and encourage him the whole way through, giving him advice and collaborating to plan his dates for him, but the line is blurred between being a help or a hindrance when he is unable to do anything without them. As they are so beneficial in the organization of the dates, Train_Man comes to depend on them, and when a snag in the plans is inevitably hit, he isn’t confident enough to act on his own to improvise a new one, and abandons Hermess in the middle of a date to go online and ask for help, which, unsurprisingly, does not end well. By the end of the film, his internet friends are still presented as a positive influence in his life, and a good support group, but the point seems to be made that moving on and pursuing more interactions in real life might be better. All of the characters involved in the online forum have their own private issues hinted at, which cause them all to become somewhat reclusive and which have brought them online in the first place. The three otaku in the internet café all cry together over never having had a girlfriend themselves, the reclusive and angsty boy won’t eat or seemingly even venture outside his room. The final message seems to be an encouragement for people to wean themselves off of reliance on anonymous chat rooms, etc for social interaction, but the film in no way discourages it completely, and the friendships Train_Man makes online are still represented as positive and meaningful.
As the world progresses technologically and online interactions hold increasing importance, the way we think of friendship, of love, of communication, of people, will have to be reconsidered. Train Man is a bit cheesy at times and a bit cliché at others, but is still overall an interesting attempt to address the complex societal structures and relationships of the next (digital) generation.