Masaru and Shinji are teenagers who spend their days playing funny and not-so-funny pranks on their teachers, and racketing the students. When one prank goes wrong, Masaru drags Shinji along to take boxing lessons. But while Shinji seems to find his balance in boxing, Masaru soon abandons and becomes friendly with a yakuza gang. Thereafter, their destinies take very different turns… Kitano gives us a vibrant and dark film on the feeling of emptiness that teenagers sometimes experience, mixing the yakuza genre and a poetic ambiance, on boredom, tragedy and slapstick. Rarely have boxing scenes been so well filmed, as Kitano shows us both the violence and the skill involved. A brilliant sound track composed by Joe Hisaishi (Le Château dans le ciel, Mon voisin Totoro, Le Voyage de Chihiro, Le Conte de la princesse Kaguya). A film with immense visual force and a major work of the Japanese director.
M.F.M.
