All in all it is movie worth attention. It even has few twists, I enjoy this kind of movies so I expected it since I like to think deeply trough all details so people who like a little gore or heart warming moments or just some twists in general this movie is for you. It might sound weird how I mentioned heart warming moments I don't want to spoil but the movie is really nice that has all kind of moments. Friendships, love, rivalry, grudge you will see all kind of emotions here that are served well.
Sorry I am bat at reviewing without spoiling but just couldn't let this have no review because maybe some people need a push to watch this and are debating too long so if you're just considering I am here to tell it's worth your time.
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Convoluted and unconventional definitely gruesome and doesn't pull any punches. It's kind of stylistically gives a post-apocalyptic feel like 1984 and Battle Royale, it's going to depress you. I loved the usual eccentricity of Japanese fiction and there's a touch of dark humor as well. Basically, Zera wants to create a society where there are no adults and he has help from a demonic entity who warns him against an uprising and certain death from 'adults' and 'traitors.' And this fear drives him to be ruthless toward everyone and creating a society aka Lychee Light Club to control other young boys. These boys are not allowed to fornicate, or do anything that goes against Zera's orders. All so they are forced to become Zera's minions, including a gigantic machine named Lychee that is programmed to be human and find girls and be Zera's killing machine. But when one of the boys starts raising his voice against Zera's insane level of cruelty, he starts finding other boys who share his distaste of Zera and his rules. At the heart this film shows how evil people try to control others by instilling fears and taking away their basic human rights like being able to find pleasure, in sex and otherwise. How they're propelled by their own fears and end up becoming heartless. And the other recurring motif is of beauty and ugliness, and how no matter how beautiful someone might be, they will eventually get tarnished if nothing the people who were so taken by their beauty alone will see them as ugly when they find something better. That's the superficial nature of beauty worship. Vond je deze recentie nuttig?
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Well that was... something?
I enjoyed it overall. Japanese horror is always a bit unhinged and morally disturbing, so I was not too taken aback but yeah, it was a shitshow hahahah. It kind of reminded me of Grand Guignol.I haven't read the manga and I felt a bit confused at some point, but it was nothing to bothersome. Stuff like the reason for Zera's goal and crazyness, for exemple.
I loved the acting, the cast did a really great job, especially Tamiya, and the characters were all great (I mean, as characters, not as people obviously). One thing tho, at the beginning they introduce the characters with one clear stereotypical role/personality each: like there's the nerd, the emo, the stupid, etc... so I thought they were going to be caricatures, but then they dropped it and those roles were no longer portrayed at all throughout the movie. Which I think is great, I would have hated caricatures, but then why introduce them like that in the first place?
I was also confused with how they handled Daff. The whole Tamiya, Daff, Kaneda thing was super wholesome, and I was expecting them to die and feel sad about it. And you can see it's what the director tried to do: make you sad about the original hikari club getting crushed. But then why have Daff do such a shameful thing? I mean, just touching a woman and wanking to it already made me lose all sympathy I had for him, but they made it even worse by showing everything, in the most humiliating/shameful way. So in the end I was like "Poor Kaneda and Tamiya for losing what they loved the most, but Daff you can die idc." Which isn't what the director was aiming for I would guess.
The colorimetry was awesome, it was really beautiful to watch. And I'm not a fan of gore but it was ok I guess, and although it wasn't very realistic it was not too ridiculous either. Except for the guy who got thrown against the wall, I laughed so hard at that one.
Anyway, don't watch it if you don't like being morally challenged and if you don't like gore, otherwise, go for it!
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