"I heard that Kirishima is going to retire"
(2012, Japan)
Director: Daihachi Yoshida
Writers: Kohei Kian, Daihachi Yoshida, Liao Asai
Cast: Takayuki Kamiki, Ai Hashimoto, Ōgo Shouboka, Higashiide Masadai, Mizuki Yamamoto
Won the 36th Japan Academy Film Awards in 2013 for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Editing (Mototaka Hinata), Best Newcomer Award (Ai Hashimoto)
Top 10 Films in 2012 Film Magazine
tale:
The quiet of a Japanese high school club was completely disrupted after a Friday, and an uneasy atmosphere hung over the students. Hearing that Kirishima of the volleyball department had withdrawn from the sports department and that Kirishima himself could not be contacted, Kirishima's sudden disappearance caused a commotion among his classmates. The volleyball department lost the game because of Kirishima's departure, which made the whole team members very frustrated; Kirishima's girlfriend Isa also sad because of its disappearance; Kirishima's close friend Kikuchi Hiroki was also surprised by this incident.
Everyone is struggling to find traces of Kirishima, and people are panicked. Ryoya Maeda, the head of the film department, who had nothing to do with kirishima's disappearance, and Masaya Sawajima, the director of the wind music department, were also mistakenly involved in this search, Maeda Ryo also silently and mediocrely managed his great film business, and Sawajima Masaya quietly hid his love for Kikuchi Hiroki. Kirishima's disappearance, like a chemical reaction, disrupted the otherwise solid student hierarchy.
Film critics:
Before "Hearing That Kirishima Is Going to Retire", Yoshida Daihachi had only made three works, "Show Your Sad Love", "Kaibio Daisa" and "Tokikaino Rose", all of which made people look sideways with their cold poetic style, and Yoshida, who has always been obsessed with writing in the adult world, turned the lens to the youth group in "Hearing that Kirishima is going to retire", but still inherited the objective, restrained, and stoic image style. The cold light and shadow, the old and mottled scenes, the natural and smooth performance, and the ambient sound with almost no soundtrack all contribute to a sense of dead silence that is surging undercurrent. Yoshida applied the rules and order of the adult world to an ivory tower like the school, an alternative youth film, in other words, an adult film dressed in the "disguise" of a youth film, and Yoshida Daihachi ambitiously announced the death of the "youth genre film". School has become a microcosm of adult society, and the rupture of any chain of interests can cause the collapse of a solid pyramid-like hierarchical structure, so the anxiety and nothingness of young students in the film have become the most appropriate symbol of the doomsday complex of adult society.
"Hearing that Kirishima is About to Retreat" depicts a group portrait of youth, which approaches the external life and inner world of young people in different states by changing perspectives, disrupting the timing, and multi-thread narrative. Such a group portrait film can give people a grand vision and a sense of sublimeness, just like a God perspective, compassion and care for the fate of all sentient beings. Compared with the classics in the history of Chinese and foreign films, Yang Dechang's "Yiyi", Fans GeSante's "Elephant", and Robert Altman's "Nashville" are all through this small event pattern, which has laid an important position in film history. However, Daihachi Yoshida's "Hearing that Kirishima Is Going to Retire" is not a work of emulation, the film uses a restrained and smooth narrative rhythm, full and different character images, and a calm and sentimental realistic texture to slowly bring the audience into that mottled youth era, and experience the coldness and confusion of youth.
The campus of youth is divided into two groups, one is a popular group represented by Pear Yarn and Kikuchi Hiroki, who are at the top of the pyramid, and the other is an unpopular group represented by former Ryoya Tajima and Masaya Sawajima, who are at the lower end of the pyramid.
The popular group has a strong sense of existence, and the first beautiful girl on campus, Pear Yarn, can attract the attention of classmates of the opposite sex no matter where she goes. Hiroki Kikuchi is tall and handsome, surrounded by male companions and pursued by beautiful little girls.
However, such a high-ranking group is attached to the higher Kirishima, and when Kirishima disappears one day, their sense of existence suddenly disappears; in addition, the unwelcome group has no sense of existence, they silently endure their work, on the verge of collapse. Ryoya Maeda, the head of the film department, did not have the support of the teachers, and the students did not cooperate with their shooting. Masaya Sawajima has a painful crush on Hiroki, and because of her inferiority, she does not dare to show her heart, and when her love is broken, she turns grief into strength and passionate playing.
These people are giants of thought, dwarfs of action, and when they are completely desperate, they will lust and create the most beautiful art. The perceptive Yoshida Daihachi uses the school as a laboratory for human nature, using images to stir up the most intense chemical reactions of youth.
The focus of the film, Kirishima, from beginning to end, has never appeared, and we are like waiting for Godot, waiting for Kirishima, but Kirishima is destined not to come. "I Heard that Kirishima is going to retire" is an absurd drama, each character is in the process of finding Kirishima, lost themselves, in fact, just as Kirishima will not come, the subjectivity and sense of security we rely on are also nothing.
Perhaps Kirishima never existed, but I firmly believe that Maeda Ryo is Kirishima, and everyone is Kirishima. For from their humility and confusion we can find hope of survival.
Author: Lieberthal