Derived from a same-titled graphic novel (literally meaning "mole"), shock-tactic filmmaker Sion Sono's Himizu ultimately delivers a sort-of affirmation of resilience and rebellion via loosely-plotted elements featuring Japanese Behaving Badly. Young Yuichi Sumida (Shota Sometani) and his family lost everything in a 2011 tsunami (the same one that triggered the Fukushima nuclear disaster, a sub-theme). Now subsisting in a riverbank shanty community, renting out small boats, the 14-year-old attends a junior high school where he is disdained, and yearns to live an "ordinary" life—driven to despairing madness by a drunk father's abuse and his mother's abandonment. Meanwhile, manic, poetry-loving classmate Keiko (Fumi Nikaido), whose own middle-class parents urge her to commit suicide for her misbehavior, latches onto Yuichi, becoming his unwanted champion/girlfriend/stalker. Yuichi's downward spiral seems headed for a vengeful, Taxi Driver-style rampage of self-destruction, but the episodes of violence here (real and imaginary) wind up going in a different direction. Oddly set to a soundtrack of Western classical music, Himizu will likely confound North American audiences with its more obscure cultural references, but fans of Sono will appreciate. A strong optional purchase. (C. Cassady)
Himizu
Olive, 130 min., in Japanese w/English subtitles, not rated, DVD: $29.95, Blu-ray: $34.95 Volume 30, Issue 1
Himizu
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