Kirishima, Bukatsu Yamerutteyo is one weird artistic movie. The title character Kirishima, captain of the volleyball team and most popular dude in the school never appears but what we get are all the other characters in the school trying to deal with Kirishimas absence. He permeates every conversation in this movie but only his absence is felt.
Kirishima, Bukatsu Yamerutteyo is a high school movie about the various characters that we always see; the popular girls group, the athletes, the lone musician girl and the nerds. The story is also told from multiple point of views though there are not interesting revelations.
So I'm watching this movie thinking I've seen all the characters and nothing much is happening. Its cool it has multiple viewpoints but when is the payoff coming? There's a non-climatic scuffle in the end that confused the hell out of me. Have I been watching 1 1/2 hours of nothing?
Then the 'true climax' of the movie happens when the camera is pointed at the head nerd and he has an answer for why he does what he does and Kirishima's best friend runs off crying because he is living life of no meaning. He is near the top in the school hierachy yet he has no purpose. That's the only thing I got from this movie.
To summarise, there's no plot in Kirishima, Bukatsu Yamerutteyo. Nothing really happens that we've not seen before and it doesn't lead anywhere interesting. I'm always complaining about jdoramas telling instead of showing but this movie isn't showing me anything new or interesting about Japanese high school life. I just don't get the praise for this movie.
Like the popular girl group. You've got the Queen-bitch, Kirishima's girlfriend with her best friend who is more like a slave and the two girls who don't really like her but hang around her because she's dating Kirishima and because they don't want to be hated by other girls. Ho-hum. I've seen this so many times in other doramas already and they actually lead somewhere.
Usually for movies that I don't get like No Country for Old Men, at least I can understand what they were trying to do. With Kirishima, Bukatsu Yamerutteyo, I have no idea what its trying to achieve. Nice to see Ohgo Suzuka again but she doesn't get to do anything with her character.
