SOTETSU | A TRAIN OF MEMORIES | 2023
The Craft of Packing 12 Years into a Breathtaking Two Minutes / SOTETSU "A TRAIN OF MEMORIES"
Two minutes, one continuous shot. A story that unfolds entirely inside a train. A father and daughter drift apart and grow close again across 12 years, all while the train car sways around them. That's all it takes to bring you to tears.
The problem
Sotetsu is a railway company that has been running through Kanagawa Prefecture since 1917. In the 3rd month of 2023, it began through-service with the Tokyu line, finally realizing a direct connection to central Tokyo that the company had wanted since its founding. Its mission was to offer families, and people about to become families, a way to reach central Tokyo from the Kanagawa suburbs without transferring. But simply announcing a new line wouldn't make anyone look twice. So they decided to tell a story about something universal to so many families: a child growing up and eventually leaving home.
The insight
The Sotetsu line isn't there for some one-off event. It's infrastructure that supports passengers' lives, 365 days a year, and the new direct connection to central Tokyo opens up people's range of activity and new possibilities. That led to a realization: life is an unbroken string of ordinary days, flowing like a single continuous shot of film. And it's in those unremarkable moments spent on a train that the shifting distance between family members gets quietly recorded.
The idea
The story follows a father and daughter over 12 years of commuting and schooling on the Sotetsu line, tracking how their relationship changes, all shot in a single continuous take on a train set. The evolving bond between father and daughter was expressed as a seamless time-lapse using 50 pairs of look-alike actors, with the swaying motion of the train mirroring the swaying of their emotions. The team searched through more than 1,000 talent agencies to find 24 look-alike pairs for every role, and 25 pairs rehearsed the choreography intensively before filming. A train set made of 25 cars was physically pushed by hand to recreate the train's sway, echoing the characters' shifting feelings. Outside the set, lighting staff ran alongside holding light-blocking panels, manually recreating even the flickering light that filters into the train car.
What happened
The campaign won Film Craft Gold and Bronze and Digital Craft Bronze at Cannes Lions 2023; Film Craft Silver and Bronze and Film Bronze at Clio Awards 2024; Motion and Film Craft Gold and Silver and Advertising Silver, Bronze, and Merit at ADC 2024; and Moving Image Craft Gold, Bronze, and Merit and Film Silver at The One Show 2024. At ADFEST 2024, it took multiple Gold awards, including a Grande, in the Film Craft and Entertainment categories.
Afterthought
It makes you realize that the ordinary commuter train has been quietly carrying family time all along. Fifty pairs of actors. A train pushed by hand. Staff running alongside, controlling the light as they go. Every bit of it done by hand, every bit of it done for real, and that's exactly why it takes your breath away. The craft and passion it took to seal 12 years into one unbroken two-minute shot hit me right in the chest.
Awards
- Cannes Lions Gold 2023
Featured in
- From 1 Second to 500 Million YearsTen ads lined up by nothing but the length of time they cover
