Presented by Japan Foundation
River's Edge
Directed by Isao Yukisada
Director
Isao Yukisada
Writer
Setoyama Misaki
Cast
Fumi Nikaido, Ryo Yoshizawa, Aoi Morikawa, Shuhei Uesugi, Sumire, Shiori Doi
Sound Designer
Hiroko Sebu
contact
Kino Films Co., Ltd.
Honors
FIPRESCI Prize, Berlinale 2018
Official selection
Berlin International Film Festival, Hong Kong International Film Festival, Jeonju International Film Festival, Lucca Film Festival, New York Asian Film Festival, Nippon Connection
Mid-’90s, on the outskirts of Tokyo. A flaming body goes flying from an apartment tower’s balcony. Breaking into her high school at night, Haruna (the superbly talented Fumi Nikaido, seen this year in INUYASHIKI) discovers Yamada (Ryo Shinozaki), beaten up and tied up in his school locker. They soon become friends, despite his main bully being her boyfriend, Kannonzaki (Shuhei Uesugo) – a violent and impulsive boy who soon cheats on Haruna with the adventurous Rumi (Shiori Doi). Add to this teenage mess the young Kozue, who suffers from bulimia… and the discovery of a body, on the edge of the river, which soon becomes a strange totem for the angst-ridden teens. And when a second body is discovered, the secret that unites them all might prove too heavy to bear…
Adapted from Kyoko Okazaki’s cult manga of the same name (and whose previous HELTER SKELTER was adapted to the big screen and showcased at Fantasia in 2013), RIVER’S EDGE is a triumph for director Isao Yukisada (GO; Nikkatsu Roman Porno Reboot’s AROUSED BY GYMNOPEDIES). Recalling the premise of a TWIN PEAKS, Yukisada adapts Okazaki’s work and shapes it into a strange and melancholy period piece – showing a glacial and ominous side to the Japan of the 1990s. Through these complex characters, all far from archetypal and portrayed by a stellar cast, RIVER’S EDGE provides a superb generational portrait; a film forged in the shadows of an eerie industrial suburb, below which seems to lie a profound darkness. Uncompromising, here’s a coming-of-age film that beautifully flirts with death and violence, and it is surely one of the great films of Japanese cinema in 2018. – Ariel Esteban Cayer
Showings
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