A pretty girl waits outside the main entrance, and all of the boys wave to her from the classroom windows. Kujo, as usual, is on the highest rooftop watching over the playing fields. The roof is where these boys practice their daring game of clapping while standing on the wrong side of the protective barrier and in danger of falling. Upon releasing his grip on the railings, how many times can Kujo clap his hands before having to grab hold of the top rail again? Defending 'titleholder' Kujo is challenged by others, including pal-turned-punk Aoki, and their long time friendship is broken after a fierce brawl over who will or should be the schoolyard boss...

Lord Of The Flies meets Reservoir Dogs? Blue Spring is a frequently delirious yet ultimately lyrical psychodrama of young-male bonding, and subsequent breaking. The subtitled film has a cartoonish brutality and it benefits tremendously from the perpetually scowling attitudes of its supporting cast. At the heart of all this arch sourness Kujo's wistful solitude offers a marked contrast to other boys' aggro, and he flouts conventional behaviour by refusing at first to engage in further contests of bravado, preferring the company of a sympathetic midget gardener who encourages the boys to plant flowers instead of fighting. Significantly, of course, Kujo is the sole member of his gang who attentively waters the garden trough, and comes to realise (and actually foresee) the peril that Aoki's raw hostility to everyone will eventually force him to confront. Some excellent performances from a convincingly youthful cast make this a worthy oriental alternative to US classics such as The Blackboard Jungle...

Review: "I'd been having diarrhea since this morning, so I took a shit on my teacher's desk."

One student's statement uttered around the mid-point of Toshiaki Toyoda's "Blue Spring" goes as far as it needs to sum up the attitudes and actions of the student body at Asa High. Ruled more by an intense gang scale of authority than it is by the faculty (of which there is little present save occasional moments of adult degradation), The halls of Asa High reek of blood as thick as the layers of dark black spray paint that marks territory next to typically banal high school tags.

As Kujo (Ryuhei Matsuda) claps for the eighth time while balancing on the highest ledge possible, his place as "boss" is solidified, whether or not everyone else agrees with it or chooses to recognize it. Cue fast, energetic chords that wrap themselves around the scene and "Blue Spring" has already established a latex-tight focus from the audience, due mostly in part to its insistence not to waver from the principal players, resulting in a refreshingly linear ride that doesn't get bogged down in side-stories.

Youth loses itself to whatever, fades away with fleeting sports dreams or hopes of academic success dashed and climbs in the back seat with ambivalence and survival in a hierarchy with death at both the top and the bottom. Kujo is a wholly accepting character. Accepting of his position as boss as well as of his possibly futureless life, as a student in a violent position of leadership he's humorously enough the most indifferent. In an empty, cutthroat world, the only things that are remotely frightening are dreams, ambitions, goals, and more specifically, those who have them. Kujo himself is as stone-faced as possible, yet unafraid to admit, "People who know what they want, scare me".

School is shown from a few perspectives in "Blue Spring", but never as a tool for education, a mold for college and ultimately a career, or even as an escape from whatever mundane family situations the characters may carry on their shoulders. It's a venue for growing up too fast, and a scouting grounds for hard nosed yakuza seeking the newest rising stars fit to go to the Koshien of the crime underworld. Like "Fudoh: The New Generation", Toyoda's work is somewhat of a yakuza jr. tale. The comparisons stop there as it's good enough to get a general idea of what we're working with. "Blue Spring" isn't as sensationally violent, but doesn't end up being as much of a reprieve from reality either.

Ryuhei Matsuda is perfect as Kujo, and the rest of the cast fills everything out pretty nicely. Maybe it's his porcelain, ready-to-shatter face that creates the character. Playing opposite Matsuda as Kujo's best friend turned rival, Aoki, is Hirofumi Arai. Subservient heel for one portion, and challenging upstart the next, Arai nicely shows his eventual disdain for the lowly position under Kujo. One of the greatest saviors of this movie was the decision (conscious or not) to make sure these kids don't come off as screaming, whiney, angsty "Battle Royale II" rejects (The fact that it was pre-BRII notwithstanding). They dish out punishment and face it on the receiving end. There may be a busted jaw across the school floor, but at least no one's calling their mommy or delivering a pouty-lipped soliloquy over the whole ordeal. Roll with fate and stay under someone's foot forever, or more ideally, make it to the top or die trying.

Topping everything off is the music, which starts and ends the film on an equally sombre yet paradoxically energetic note. Thee Michelle Gun Elephant does for "Blue Spring"s temperamental underage yakuza rage what The Pillows did for Gainax's wide-eyed frenetic anime "FLCL". It musically expresses a lot of the feelings and atmosphere that's projected by the movie itself, and in no uncertain terms does it rock the balls off the walls.

Without having read the Taiyo Matsumoto (of the equally spirited and dark manga Black and White, previously released in the states in PULP magazine) manga to compare the movie adaptation to, it's impossible to say how faithful Toyoda's work is. Either way, "Blue Spring" stands on its own as an entertaining and at times equally dark and beautiful piece of cinema, definitely worth watching.

Although other countries have films with similar themes, Japan's portrayal of it's youth culture is presented with poetic and magical imagery. At times the performances are stoic and unemotional, but then they erupt in anger and aggression. Films such as All About Lily Chou Chou, Fudoh: The Next Generation, Suicide Club, and Blue Spring are part of this wave of Japanese cinema.

The character of Kugo, played by actor Ryuhei Matsuda (Gohatto) embodies most of these characteristics as he plays a baby faced teenager who wins the role of gang leader of his faction in the senior class by way of a peculiar game of dare. The gang leader is determined by hanging from a rooftop fence and clapping one's hands several times while letting go of the fence and then reaching for it at the end of a series of claps. The one person who claps the most times and remains hanging on is the winner. They then take the role of gang leader. Once Kujo comes into power, several people in the group question his ability to run the gang. They turn on him and Kujo appears to be a lot more fierce than expected. Kujo however expresses very little and the gang under him begins to unravel as his best friend Aoki (Hirofumi Arai) confronts him and starts a faction against his once best friend. It is not territory or power that is at stake here, but self worth. Kujo is coming to understand or the very least ponder such a concept, while others are consumed by the power struggle around them. Those familiar with a recent Japanese film, Battle Royale (2000) will understand the kind of students that roam the high school hallways in Blue Spring.

Most of these Japanese films dealing with disaffected youths bring several questions to mind. Although the home-life of these youths would be the most logical area to look at first, it is the school environment and system that seems to catch the interest of many Japanese filmmakers. Why the school? What is it about this environment that enables violence? Is it the uniforms?