Hi everyone!
Welcome back to the podcast with our second Netflix Original review this week, this time for a Japanese teenage crime drama. Keith will be up in a minute with his thoughts, but for a few other Japanese dramas, check out our reviews for “After the Storm” (Episode #392), “Oh Lucy!” (Episode #219), and Keith’s review for “Shoplifters” (Episode #394). And if you have any favorites, let us know at onemoviepunch.com or reach out over social media.
Take it away, Keith!
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Hi, Philly Film Fan here with another review for One Movie Punch. You can follow me on Twitter at PhillyFilmFan.
Today’s movie is “River’s Edge”, a film about a corpse on a river bank and the high school students who know about it. No, I’m not talking about the 1986 film featuring Crispin Glover, Keanu Reeves, Dennis Hopper, and Ione Skye. This is a new film directed by Isao Yukisada, written by Misaki Setoyama, and based on the manga by Kyôko Okazaki.
No spoilers.
“River’s Edge” revolves around a group of high school students who are all suffering from a terrible case of ennui. The film opens with the only semi-likable character, Wakakusa (Fumi Nikaido) discovering one of her fellow students trapped in a locker. Yamada (Ryo Yoshizawa) has been targeted for bullying because of his sexuality. Normally a character like Yamada would have our sympathies but it’s clear that the abuse he’s suffered has taken its toll on him and warped him in some way. Yamada is not as awful as his tormentors but he is insufferable in his own way.
As “River’s Edge” progresses we are introduced to a parade of typical high school drama. This student is ignoring that student, this student is keeping secrets from that student, this student is spreading rumors about that student, this student is cheating on that student, this student has low self-esteem and an eating disorder, and on and on and on it goes. But the problem here isn’t that we’re taken through a tour of high school cliches, the problem is that everyone is so miserable along the way. It feels like society is decaying from the inside out and it fills everyone with a sense of existential dread.
To the extent that “River’s Edge” has a plot, it centers on a rotting corpse, which is pretty appropriate. Everything about this film is gross. The way people eat is gross, the way they have sex is gross, the vomiting is gross, the way the characters treat each other is gross, and that putrid corpse is gross. It makes viewing the film a thoroughly unpleasant experience. At one point Yamada declares “I want to see something totally different from reality appear” and that’s exactly how I felt watching this. I wanted anything other than this grim reality.
I found “River’s Edge” to be unrelentingly bleak and that made getting to the end feel like a chore. However, it’s not a poorly made film. The filmmakers clearly intended to make a film this sour. I’m just not sure why they wanted to.
Rotten Tomatoes: NR
Metacritic: NR
One Movie Punch: 4.0/10
“River’s Edge” (2018) is rated TV-MA and is currently streaming on Netflix.
This jawn was brought to you by Philly Film Fan. For more movie reviews, follow me on Twitter at PhillyFilmFan where I’m participating in the #365Movies challenge. That’s P-H-I-L-L-Y-F-I-L-M-F-A-N.
