Raindance Film Festival 2026: The Unluckiest Girl in the World

Writer and Director: Ryosuke Hayazaka

It is fair to describe The Unluckiest Girl in the World as a little oddity. At well under an hour it is certainly short and the approach taken by writer / director Ryosuke Hayazaka is at times, strange.

Aged 27 and working in Human Relations Yamanoura describes herself as The Unluckiest Girl in the World. Her fiancé vanished the day after proposing and she finds it hard to dump her current boyfriend despite his infidelity and habit of borrowing, but not repaying, money. When strolling in the street Yamanoura inevitably steps in gum.

True to her luck Yamanoura is killed in a car accident and finds the afterlife is decidedly quirky. Yamanoura  encounters a smartly-dressed relentlessly cheerful version of  herself who offers the opportunity to re-do her life and chose at random from her past partners and see which one would be a suitable life companion if she gets the opportunity to start over. Unfortunately ill luck continues to dominate and Yamanoura seems destined to repeat her past mistakes.

Although the film is short Ryosuke Hayazaka does not use the limited time well. The opening is a prologue giving excerpts from Yamanoura’s ill-fated relationships. One assumes the scenes will take a different direction when Yamanoura replays them in her second life but instead they simply repeat what happened the first time around. This not only creates felling of deja vu in the viewer it is contrary to the approach taken in films like Groundhog Day, whereby a protagonist allowed a second chance learns from their experiences and modifies their behaviour. As a result Yamanoura remains a passive, unchanging character.

Having a variety of boyfriends gives the opportunity for a range of comic styles although writer/director Hayazaka does not stage all of them to best effect. There is a nicely farcical sequence of Yamanoura’s boss trying to seduce her whilst reassuring her that his marriage is at an end despite obvious evidence to the contrary. A potential relationship with an online Influencer allows some satirical digs at modern society as he acknowledges his sole interest in pursuing girlfriends is to sign them up for the products he endorses.

Yet the narrative of the film is underdeveloped. Yamanoura’s fiancé explains his reason for cutting and running was a desire to climb Mount Everest. Even casual questioning by Yamanoura raises doubts as to if this is true yet his real motive is left frustratingly vague.

The studied eccentricity and failure of the central character to develop makes The Unluckiest Girl in the World an occasionally amusing but not altogether satisfactory film.

The Unluckiest Girl in the World is screening at the Raindance Film Festival 2026, 17 – 26 June.