This is like a hunter's trap ensnaring you with pain and suddenly you are stuck. One of the more brutal films I have seen. Unlike Somai's other works there are not any joyous peaks to balance the brutality, presenting a picture of maybe where those films came from. I was at first waiting for fun scenes, so it threw me off. I wouldn't say it is a downer. It is just far more truth than you will ever see in a film. The mom hates being a mom, doesn't like her daughter, is in an apathetic state. The best you can say is she offers her a sober unfiltered reality. The dad isn't any better. He's perplexed by her. They are not hateful or entirely unsympathetic. They are very low key and she is high key. She wants to be Somai's Tokyo Heaven or Sailor Suit protagonist. Instead she is given the disappointment of reality. She goes running off and wandering across nature. It becomes this Freudian dream machine. I think in those bits the film indulges too much, however with that said, it is functional and necessary. In film you go to nature as either a happy ending, or here, for hardship, enlightenment, renewal. It is presenting her rock bottom moment coming out the other end stronger, and mom is there waiting; not the 'what if' but the 'what is'. But the film accomplished something only the most vital works of cinema are able, it is impossible to watch this and your mind not go to a hundred places in your memories. It has countless scenes and vignettes that burn in the brain. Viewing Somai's body of work I can see this as one of his most crucial pieces, even though I do not have to be happy about that. I noticed from the start he is an artist who constantly tries to top himself and bring more for the audience than last time out.
