Framed by the last unfocused protests of 60s and 70s Japanese radicalism, this is a raw and rather ragged take on the doomed young lovers' motif (Thieves Like Us, Badlands) but where their American forebears take flight on the open road our troubled Japanese anti-heroes are set in a frieze of emotional and physical inertia and spend much of their time helplessly moping about in a roadside café.
This rarely-seen film boasts some great twilight cinematography of inhuman hinterlands (highway verges, the edges of an airport, blank vistas of ribbon development) and an unwavering faith in the central performances that borders on the indulgent but ultimately pays off in depicting the ferment of teenage desire and frustration.
This rarely-seen film boasts some great twilight cinematography of inhuman hinterlands (highway verges, the edges of an airport, blank vistas of ribbon development) and an unwavering faith in the central performances that borders on the indulgent but ultimately pays off in depicting the ferment of teenage desire and frustration.