This Japanese film is centred on a group of students who attend a high school next to a polluted river. They include Ichiro Yamada, an in-the-closet gay boy who is frequently bullied; Haruna Wakakusa, a girl he takes to see a dead body after she helps him one day; Kannonzaki, her boyfriend who was the one bullying Yamada; Kanna, Yamada's 'girlfriend' and Kozue Yoshikawa, a bulimic model who believes she is ugly despite her profession.
This is a rather strange film. There is little plot to speak of. We just see the characters interacting and experiencing a series of events. There violence which is rarely extreme but has a brutally realistic feel. Similarly sex scenes aren't erotic but instead have a crude animalistic feel, clearly a deliberate choice. The characters aren't particularly sympathetic; again this is clearly deliberate. The film has a bleak look; something that is emphasised by its 4:3 picture ratio. All this may make this seem like a film to avoid but it strangely works; I was drawn into the characters' stories and thanks to solid low-key acting believed in them. The themes mean this certainly won't be for everybody. Despite its school age settings it is certainly not suitably for younger viewers; it more than earned its UK-18 certificate. Overall I'd recommend it to older viewers looking for something different.
These comments are based on watching the film in Japanese with English subtitles.
