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Blue Spring

New Currents

Crime/Violence · Coming of Age · Psychology

CountryJapan
Production Year2001
Running Time83min
Format35mm
ColorCOLOR

Program Note

Rebellion is one of the key elements of teen movies, and for teen movies set in classrooms, rebellion against the repressive educational system and conservative elders are two key elements. Toshiyaki Toyoda′s Blue Spring seems to follow the patterns of a typical teen movie, but in this film the emphasis is on friendship rather than rebellion. A high school somewhere in Tokyo: Kujo, now in third grade, is crowned the boss of the school and Aoki, a friend of Kujo, looks up to him. Suddenly Kujo starts to lose interest in everything, including Aoki. A shocked Aoki starts to become violent and begins to play a dangerous game that Kujo used to play. Aoki starts to clap his hands while hanging on the school fence. His sole purpose is to win Kujo. The world that Kujo and Aoki are living in may be a violent one, but they seem to depend on each other in order to survive. Amid the violence, rage and despair, Aoki hopelessly seeks friendship. Toshiyaki paradoxically portrays the loneliness and isolation inside the minds of energetic but violent youth. (Kim Ji-Seok)

Director

Toshiaki TOYODA

Born in Osaka, 1969. Toshiaki Toyoda was a member of the prestigious Shogi (Japanese Chess) Promotion Association from age 9 to 17. He entered the film industry as screenwriter for Checkmate directed by Junji Sakamoto in 1991. ). Continuing to write scripts – as well as theatre and comics - Toyoda made his directorial debut with “Pornostar”In 1998,which won Best Newcomer from the Japanese Film Director’s Association. Recently he adapted top comic writer Matsumoto Taiyo’s “Blue Spring” which was a box office hit in Japan. 9 souls is his fourth film as director. he made his directorial debut with the feature Pornostar. His feature documentary Unchain(2000) was shown at the 5th PIFF.

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