ffkirbuk

A harrowing tale of abuse and mistreatment of colored youths at a reform school. It is exclusively told from the subjective POV of the main character and a fellow intern he befriends at the school. While I appreciate the ambition behind this, it unfortunately and somewhat paradoxically distances me from the main character. Some early scenes felt a bit contrived and forced with this technique, the dialog never flowing in a natural way. Watched this at Stockholm Film Festival without subtitles was also a bit of a challenge since it was very difficult to make out the dialog in certain scenes. You could grasp the events, but details was lost on me. Despite these objections regarding the stylistic choice, the story was still somewhat gripping but overall, it could have been even more so using a more traditional narrative.

Very well made thriller with a mounting sense of dread and tight formal control we have come to expect from Kyoshi Kurosawas previous movies.

While very effective, this doesn't quite reach the heights of Cure. Still, there's much to enjoy here, a dry sense of humor, tension and scares, great performances and some very well staged action sequences. They have a spatial clarity and tight editing which rivals some of the best directors of the genre, and which you too rarely see in modern cinema which too often rely on confusing and excessive editing. While the ending might be divisive for some, it manages to be simultaneously conventional and experimental, leaving certain parts open to interpretation. Highly recommended.