大塚製薬 | Midnight Train | 2022
Through the Night, Morning Comes / Calorie Mate "Midnight Train"
A whole year of a student's life flows past the window of a night train. Carrying both the things they gave their all to and the things left unfinished, the train still keeps running toward morning.
The problem
This is the eighth installment in Calorie Mate's series supporting students preparing for exams. In 2021, school and club activities had started to return to normal, but school trips were still cancelled that year. This film depicts a year that was a tangled mix of good and bad, as students headed toward their exams anyway.
The insight
Not dramatic resolve, but quiet strength. The theme is the real experience of exam students, who have no choice but to turn everything—good and bad alike—into fuel to keep moving forward. The title "Midnight Train" carries the feeling of running through darkness while still, surely, heading toward morning.
The idea
Daiken Okudaira and Yuzu Aoki spend 120 seconds in a space like a night train car. Outside the window, fireworks, club matches, and ordinary everyday moments flow past one after another. The structure shows how all of it connects to this moment. The song, YOASOBI's "Ano Yume wo Nazotte," was re-recorded as a ballad arrangement specifically for this commercial. It stays quiet in tone throughout, and ends before you know it.
What happened
At ACC TOKYO 2022, it won the Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications Award / ACC Grand Prix, as well as an ACC Gold Award in the Film Craft category. It also received the Gold Award at the Dentsu Advertising Awards, an Excellence Award at the Galaxy Awards, and an Excellence Award at the Transit Advertising Grand Prix.
Afterthought
After the night passes, morning comes. It's a simple truth, but seeing it portrayed so quietly and yet so powerfully really moves me. This is a film that reaches not just exam students, but anyone.
