Haruji and his older brother Natsuhisa are off to the beach for the summer. Haruji is the intellectual of the family and is very innocent when it comes to anything involving women. First at the train station on there arrival, and again at the beach, Haruji coincidentally runs into a pretty girl, Eri, who he instantly falls in love with. Without giving much away, the film begins very much like a love story but a sinister undercurrent begins to emerge near the end. This is really a story about innocence and the lost of it, relying very heavily on the story of these two different brothers. Natshuisa is the much cooler, ladies-man who teases Haruji a lot about his dorky ways. Even still, you could say they have a good loving younger-older brother relationship. This young generation is only interested in carnal pleasures, but Haruji is different. In once scene, Haruji complains to Nat and a bunch of his friends, about their collective generation not being innovators or thinkers, but just simply lazy. The direction reestablishes this view about the lazyiness of youth culture later in the film, showing the generational gap between the youth and their mentors, teachers and parents, etc- who complain about their laziness and rowdiness. Told by Haruji's point of view, we see him incredibly happy and in love with Eri, who reciprocates this notion. Eri isn't innocent by any means, but she does appear to love Haruji. Nat always being the lady's man grows jealous setting off a diabolical chain of events. The way this brother-brother relationship unfolds, and the transformation which Haruji goes through, having what he loves snatched away by his own blood, out of jealously more than anything is incredibly effective. Haruji's character is played perfectly, and it's bone-chilling to see what happens at the end. Visually the film is shot in a very subtle yet affective way. The sequences between Haruji and Eri are adorable, and perfectly create the innocence, nervousness, Haruji is experiencing especially the jubilation. We see their legs slowly moving closer as they sit together, their hands touching and we feel it from Haruji's point-of-view. It's pretty incredible how affective this film is at capturing the sexual urges of these characters, particularly cause they could barely show anything, all of the above aiding in a fantastically crafted finale. 9/10
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AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
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