Director(s): Sion Sono
Cast: Denden, Fumi Nikaido, Shota Sometani
Sumida (Shometani) and his schoolmate Keiko (Nikaido) are 15 year old school kids living a dystopian existence where each of their parents hope and encourage them to die. Set in tsunami-hit areas of Japan, which are used as a backdrop, the story follows roughly that of the manga of the same name.
Don t give up. The constant refrain repeated in radio and television programmes to a nation hit by the merciless catastrophe sounds even more ominous when written in a note left by Yuichi Sumida s mother after running off with her lover. At fifteen, Sumida (Shôta Sometani) is left alone to manage the family s languishing boat-rental business and fend off his drunk and penniless father s bouts of violence. Sumida sees his simple dream for an ordinary future rapidly evapo¬rating before his eyes. Sharing similarly humble but fading dreams is his classmate Keiko Chazawa (Fumi Nikaidou), who also happens to have a major crush on him, even though Sumida seems deeply annoyed by her presence.
Sumida fights frequently with his father, is abandoned by his mother and tends to reject friendly advances of others. Real violence enters Sumida s life when his drunken father goes too far in taunting him. Shocked by the crime he has committed, and the fact he ll never be able to lead the ordinary life he planned on, Sumida paints his face and stalks the city streets with a kitchen knife, crazily determined to make amends to society by killing wrong-doers.
