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Ryuhei Matsuda, Hirofumi Arai, Sousuke Takaoka, Yusuke Oshiba, Yuta Yamazaki

Following up on his gritty boxing documentary Unchained, Toshiaki Toyoda returns to narrative film with this bleak portrait of life at perhaps the worst high school in Japan. The film opens with the q... read more read more...uiet yet brutal Kujo (played by Gohatto's Ryuhei Matsuda) winning a particularly hair-raising version of chicken -- clapping as many times as you can while hanging on the outside of the school's rooftop railing. Kujo is immediately crowned the king of the school and his gang -- including his thuggish childhood pal Aoki -- rule the place with an iron fist. The student fear and worship Kujo while ignoring and ridiculing their tired and resentful teachers. As one member after another falls by the wayside -- one joins the yakuza while another stabs a third gang member to death -- Kujo grows disillusioned the life of a high school potentate and starts to ignore his chum Aoki. Confused and angry, Aoki disappears from school for a spell, only to return with a new road warrior haircut as a nightmarish vision of teenage alienation. With brutal efficiency, Aoki establishes himself as the school's top-dog and soon the two former friends face each other down in a final violent confrontation. This film was screened at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

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83% liked it

3,499 ratings

Unrated, 1 hr. 23 min.

Directed by: Toshiaki Toyoda

Release Date: February 7, 2002

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DVD Release Date: March 29, 2005

Stats: 175 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (175)

  • Saxia
    October 20, 2008
    Saxia
    Enjoyed this, in-school yakuza, takes bullying to an entire different level!

    I loved the soundtrack by the way, fits the movie perfectly.
  • jimbotender
    July 4, 2010
    jimbotender
    Coming-of-age dark tale.Now what's the importance around this 'hood?Toyoda describes in a very simple way the daily school upbringing of a bunch of neo-slackers and offers a primitive affiliation to their environment.A great film all in all.
  • cacutshaw
    January 31, 2008
    cacutshaw
    Based on the fantastic manga, this is a gritty, surreal and downbeat film about high school. Saw this on Sept. 12, 2001 and unfortunately there was a plane in the film that the audience couldn't seem to get past, I'm sure everyone was thinking about very recent events, very unde... read morerstandable, but the Q&A was more about the plane than about the movie. These are probably the same people who watch TMZ nowadays.
  • Youareinapartofthegear
    April 3, 2007
    Youareinapartofthegear
    Awesome, awesome, awesome...Ryuhei Matsuda is one of the best Japanese actors I've come across...it's kind of a violent movie, but it's really good. You won't believe how attached you become to the characters by the end.

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Critic Reviews

June 24, 2006
Time Out

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Kim Linekin
August 7, 2004
Kim Linekin, eye WEEKLY

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