‘All the Long Nights’: Leads’ chemistry delivers in heartwarming drama

Can men and women be friends? Sho Miyake’s gently empathetic and sharply observant “All the Long Nights” answers this age-old question with the expected “yes.” But his protagonists — a woman with premenstrual syndrome and a man with panic disorder — are not the usual medical melodrama stereotypes.

Based on Maiko Seo’s novel, the film depicts its main characters’ conditions with welcome touches of humor, if not the quirky variety found in Shunsuke Shinada’s 2019 comedy “Little Miss Period,” another rare film that examines what is euphemized as “that time of the month.”

And just as he did in his award-winning 2022 boxing drama “Small, Slow but Steady,” Miyake takes a naturalistic approach to his story by focusing more on character development than plot twists and filming from an objective middle distance. Meanwhile, the minimalist score by DJ Hi’Spec and the autumnal palette of cinematographer Yuta Tsukinaga, who also worked with Miyake on “Small, Slow but Steady,” bring an evocative beauty to the proceedings.

The film, however, does not prettify its protagonists’ troubled lives. Misa Fujisawa (Mone Kamishiraishi) suffers such severe PMS, with its accompanying insomnia and irritability, that it scuttles her budding corporate career. When co-workers find her sleeping in an empty room after having an embarrassing office meltdown, she runs away and resigns soon after.

Fast forward five years. Misa is now working for a small company that makes scientific instruments for children. Her work is routine but pleasant and her colleagues are friendly, though new hire Takatoshi Yamazoe (Hokuto Matsumura), who silently sips carbonated water at the desk next to hers, rejects her offer of sweets.

She blows up at him, saying the sound of his fizzy drink bothers her, but later tries to make amends as she has so many times in the past. Then we see Takatoshi with a doctor (Chika Uchida) and a woman (Haruka Imou) who may be a girlfriend, talking about his panic disorder. The doctor proposes exposure therapy — that is, doing what scares him in easy stages. Takatoshi tries standing on a station platform, but can’t bring himself to board a train and collapses in a quivering heap.

Despite initial frictions (when Takatoshi tells Misa, “Our problems differ,” she snaps back, “I didn’t know there was a ranking”), the two inevitably begin to bond as they learn more about each other’s conditions.

Meanwhile, we learn that their kind boss (Ken Mitsuishi) and Takatoshi’s understanding former co-worker (Kiyohiko Shibukawa) belong to a support group for people whose loved ones committed suicide. Their shared pain, we see, has made them sensitive to the pain of others.

The film ambles along without dramatic romantic declarations or floods of tears, while deepening our affection for the central characters. Inspired by a touchingly poetic narration taped long ago by their boss’s deceased brother, Misa and Takatoshi plan an annual planetarium show at a local elementary school. In the process, they discover a new way of looking at the world, or rather the universe, that expands their minds, just as their quietly supportive workplace has helped heal their hearts.

The chemistry between Kamishiraishi and Matsumura, who played a married couple on the NHK morning drama “Come Come Everybody,” creates a mood of radiant warmth and, finally, joy. Also, with its depths of meaning, “All the Long Nights” rewards repeat viewings. And someday, I hope, Takatoshi will board that train.