TLA Releasing
R1 DVD
Schoolboy
Crush is not as the time suggests. While we may think it is a film filled with
lurid and wild school sex and fun times – an American film with this title certainly
would be - it is actually a rather melancholic reflection on love, loss and
life.
As
with any Japanese film with young men, the boys are beautiful and androgynous
and the same sex school seems to exist in a world in which woman seem to be
non-existent.
At
times the film seems to move into soap opera territory as the boys all complete
and manipulate against each other in a melodrama, but on the whole I think it
is very effective in its exploration of the various emotional territories it
covers.
Teacher
Aoi has just been dumped by his boyfriend and decides to dream the night away
with a very beautiful male prostitute. Sora is not only beautiful but sensitive
and understanding. However, the next day when Aoi returns to work he finds the Sora is the new
student at the boys boarding school where he teaches. This is a disaster for
Aoi as not only is Sora now in his classes but his mobile number is in Sora’s
phone.
Aoi
seems lost and unsure how to deal with the sexually precocious Sora and every
time he makes a move to neutralize the risk from Sora, Sora is a step ahead.
What Aoi does not seem to realize is that Sora has deep emotions for him. Aoi
seems primarily concerned with the need to protect his career and personal life
and does not see the emotional world of the boys in the school. He does not
make any real effort to understand Sora, what he does or why and the effect
that Soras sexuality has on the developing emotional life of the boys around
him.
Slowly,
life at the school heats up, Sora sneaks out at night to work his trade and Aoi
becomes more and more paranoid. Sora regularly rings Aoi, at first teasing him
and then to ask him for advice. In the end he “trades” the Aoi’s phone number
for Aois help in buying an old house. Aoi does not realize it was Sora’s
childhood home. The danger, however, is that Ichiyu has already recorded the
numbers from Sora’s phone and knows he has had extra curricula contact with
Aoi.
Sora’s
relationship with Ichiyu, his roommate is significant. Sora does not realize
how alienated Ichiyu really is. While he is brilliant academically he is
emotionally inexperienced and when they have a small misunderstanding the
results are disastrous. Ichiyu is clearly obsessed with Sora and cannot deal
with his emotions being rejected.
Sora
is more nuanced than one may expect from a male prostitute. While money is very
important to him, his motivations are clearly far more complex than immediately
apparent at the start of the film. As the plot unfolds we find he is the adopted
son of a rich family and is only really wanted for his looks and brains, the
family’s biological son, being, well, a bit below par.
He
works his trade to pay a detective to try and find his missing family. In many
ways he is a lost young man trying to use what he has to survive in a world
from which he is alienated and separate. While he is comfortable with his
sexuality, he also understands how to use it as a tool for survival and to
manipulate others.
While
there is quite a bit of flesh on show, the movie is not driven by sex but more
by emotion and relationships, it is a surprisingly intimate look at the
emotional life of young men and while, at times, bordering on a melodrama is
rather a nice work of Japanese cinema.
This review will appear in Volume 2:1
(2009) of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.
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