The story is centred very much on two 14-year old teens, a male and female, both from horribly broken and abusive homes/families - where suicide and murder is never far from the minds of parents and kids alike. We witness much physical slapping, hatred and loathing - and even openness from parents regarding how they rue the day that the kids were born - and how much easier life would now be if they hadn't been. So as you can imagine, our two teens are fairly broken, despondent and pessimistic. Mozart's Requiem Mass plays frequently as the cameras meander over the physical destruction of the location and people too.
Keiko (the girl) is a little more positive than Sumida (the boy) and even though she's been abused at home too, tries to inject some optimism into him It's difficult though as his mum, who lives with him in the lakeside shack, brings home a trail of men to sleep with and neglects him (she eventually leaves) - and to make it worse, his dad regularly turns up drunk, looking for money, and often brutally and violently beats Sumida. Sumida's family (what's left of it) run a now-neglected lakeside pleasure boat hiring service, which he needs to take over, being the only one left, and make good. But he's not interested, enthused or motivated.
There's a kinda cute love angle going on here too though as Keiko has previously eyed-up Sumida at school (which he has now abandoned in order to run the boat business) and in the early stages of the film, hopes for a future with him. So she hangs around him, despite him rejecting her through is pessimistic misery and also sometimes physical abuse. She doesn't give up and tries to clean the business up, market it locally and get things going again. Meanwhile, Sumida is so fed up with beatings by his dad that he's considering drastic and fatal action. Both of our characters clearly, given the above, end up with lowly poor self-esteem as they feel rejected and unwanted by their parents.
In and around the boatyard/lake a group of other characters have landed and made tents and shacks of their own. This is where much quirky humour comes in as these characters interact and conflict often with the misery and gloom surrounding our main characters and their situation. To make things worse, they are all under threat, and suffer violence from, the local Yakuza mafia who keep turning up to get the money Sumida's dad owes them. By hook or by crook, taking no prisoners and casting the blame net widely.
Director Sion Sono seems to have specialised in making films about teenagers on the edge of society, often involving murder, crime and abuse - and this is clearly no exception. Apparently the story project started off with Manga roots before being adapted here for this outing. That's probably where I get lost on that stuff! Himizu means mole in Japanese and Keiko describes Sumida as such in the film, as he's often covered in mud in this rainy, dour setting, often after beatings and thrown into it.
I don't know any of the cast but top billing goes to Shôta Sometani and Fumi Nikaidô, the boy and girl. The two teens are terrific throughout and worth sitting through the fairly long 2 hours and 10 minute runtime for. The cinematography is compelling and engaging to watch as it leaps between all sorts of scenes of the bleak and depressing urban landscape, powerful horror and violence - and moving, touching adolescent romance.
The message here and reflection for the people of Japan following this tragedy is to be inspired, don't give up, gather up optimism from where you can and dream of a better future. A super film which I found hard to track down I'm afraid, snagging a used DVD in the end. The kind of film that will show on Channel 4 in the UK and the likes of MUBI - or even your local arthouse cinema. Watch out for it.
