A message that stays beside you — viewed 80,000 times

This documentary-style music video was made with Hokkaido Inochi no Denwa, a suicide-prevention helpline, in response to the surge of loneliness and suicide during the COVID-19 pandemic. It features “Ikitete Kurete Arigatou” (“Thank You for Being Alive”) by Night de Light, artists from Hokkaido. Rather than simply encouraging, it quietly conveys — through both image and music — how much it matters to have someone gently by your side.

Background

In 2020, the pandemic wrapped society in anxiety and isolation, and suicides rose sharply. Amid desperate voices saying, “I called a hundred times and couldn’t get through,” Hokkaido Inochi no Denwa shared a wish: to go from only receiving calls to sending out a message of its own. That is how this music video began.

Concept

“Let me stay beside you.”
What someone who wants to die, or to disappear, needs is not strong encouragement, but a presence that doesn’t try to change them or cheer them on — someone who simply, quietly stays beside them. The film makes that quiet companionship visible.

What only someone who has been there could make

The film grew out of the director’s own experience: abuse, discrimination and bullying from early childhood, and seriously considering suicide at 17.
To most viewers it may seem to carry very little information. But for the people who truly need it, anything more would be too much to take in.
The main character does not move, does not speak — simply exists — so that viewers can see themselves in the character.
It is a film made to quietly bring hope to people whose strength to live is running out.

Approach

• Minimal visual load: contrast and saturation lowered and information held back, for a gentle image. Even the blacks were kept at 90%, not 100%.
• Story: the main character does not move, speak or change. Someone simply appears beside them, quietly, and stays.
• Music in step with breath: Night de Light (Hirano and Hiro) recorded in a single take, breathing together, to capture a real warmth.

Impact

• Featured in NHK’s national special “Tada Umarete Kita Dake Nanoni”
• Covered by outlets including Hokkaido NEWS WEB, Yahoo! News, the Chunichi Shimbun and the Asahi Shimbun
• Distributed on DVD to elementary and junior high schools across Japan
• Over 80,000 views on YouTube (as of 2025)
• 2,000–3,000 shares of media articles
• A talk at “SOZOW LIVE” for children, and use in schools

Director’s note

When you want to die, or to disappear, what you need isn’t strong encouragement — just someone who will stay beside you.
Having lived through abuse and discrimination from childhood, and having seriously considered suicide at 17, I wanted this film to reach people.
I believe it can be, for someone, a presence that quietly stays beside them.

Credits

• Director: Narita Jun
• Creative director: 土居 恵理也
• Director of photography: 冨山大輝
• Gaffer: 尾形浩康
• Editor: 冨山大輝
• Storyboard: 小野田依子
• Assistant director: 大谷佳祐

Production support: Life Crayon Style Inc., 竹内力也, and the “101 Colors of Dreams, 101 Lives” team
Location: Linka2nd (Linka Associates Inc.)