The film excels at portraying the same seemingly simple story from different perspectives. It is efficient at untangling a scenario based on childish lies, misunderstandings, and bad luck. The approach is perfect for analyzing the perspective of the kids with often illogical motivations, while usually not with bad intentions. Furthermore, different angles work well for taking a look into Japanese society, where many things are not expressed literally, and a lot of verbalization is avoided to save face. Often sacrifices are made just to maintain stability, not to seek the ultimate truth.
It succeeds in deconstructing the power of unintentionally mean remarks, which among kids start to live a life of their own and might grow from an egg to Godzilla.
On the downside, I do not buy into the love story. Firstly, the boys are too young to make the viewer believe the attraction is truly of a romantic nature. A much more believable line would be obsessive friendship, which is quite common among kids. Secondly, the romantic edge discredits the concept of friendship among boys as inherently gay. It might help to win awards for LGBT movies, but it does a disservice to the plot, cohesion of the movie, and even the general goal of carefully exploring preadolescent masculinity.
It succeeds in deconstructing the power of unintentionally mean remarks, which among kids start to live a life of their own and might grow from an egg to Godzilla.
On the downside, I do not buy into the love story. Firstly, the boys are too young to make the viewer believe the attraction is truly of a romantic nature. A much more believable line would be obsessive friendship, which is quite common among kids. Secondly, the romantic edge discredits the concept of friendship among boys as inherently gay. It might help to win awards for LGBT movies, but it does a disservice to the plot, cohesion of the movie, and even the general goal of carefully exploring preadolescent masculinity.