Q2 Week 1 - Mise-en-scene

I have decided to analyse the mise-en-scene of Japanese film Kakegurui, directed by Hayato Kawai. It follows high school student Yumeko Jabami after she transfers to the prestigious Hyakkao Private Academy, where student success depends not on their grades or athletic prowess, but their skill at gambling. The school is ruled by a corrupt student council that controls all of the gambling, and a strict social hierarchy is in place.

The movie opens up with a brief narration by introverted student Ryota Suzui describing the school, accompanied by shots moving slowly down one of its corridors. The shallow space setting helps create a sense that the school and its students are cloistered and isolated from the normal outside world. It then cuts to Ryota playing a high-stakes game of poker with second-year Mary Saotome in a dimly-lit classroom. After he plays an inferior hand to his opponent and loses, he is shown shocked and afraid as an onlooker outfits him with a dog tag that reads 'Bottom Feeder Rank 0100' - something that, in this school, makes him the equivalent of a house pet. The low-key lighting of the room helps to add to the feeling of despair and debt that the scene creates. Everyone involved was wearing the same school uniform, making the setting more clear.

In a later scene, Yumeko is playing a memory game with student council member Itsuki Sumeragi, where two decks of playing cards are used and she must match a card with its equivalent. In a disturbing twist, Sumeragi reveals prior to a match that she has a collection of actual painted fingernails from people she has defeated, and that she wishes to collect Yumeko's fingernails. The lighting in this scene sporadically changes like a lightning flash to indicate the insane nature of Sumeragi's 'hobby' and the irregular placement of the cards on the table help raise questions as to why they are like that. When I watched it, I initially though she was using the directions of the cards to cheat.