Liverleaf

A bullied girl seeks to avenge the deaths of her parents, grievous injury of her sister and the fire that destroyed their home.

This was a ...meh film for me. There was some effort put into most of the characters and that's always a big thing for me. The acting was decent but the pace was a bit slow.

I've seen some reviewer's commenting on the level of gore but I wasn't impressed. I watch a lot of horror though and I may be a bit desensitized from over exposure. It just wasn't as gory as I expected.

It's not awful so, I say check it out.

"Liverleaf" could have been a whole lot better. It just goes on for so much longer than it needs to that you completely lose interest, and the violence, which is probably the film's main draw, just gets tiresome.

The movie makes you wait quite a while for its first foray into amateur surgery, and it is truly shocking. But after a while it just becomes dull. Material that should pack more of a punch does not, because you get so used to the blood and guts that you stop taking it seriously.

The plot is about a girl who attends a small rural school in Japan, where she is sadistically bullied by the other girls. Even her father is assaulted by boys at the school when he meets with one of her teachers.

The movie COULD have been a kind of meditation on bullying and revenge, and at times it feels like it's trying for that. But it's far too long, and far too violent, to really take seriously, and whatever moments of seriousness are fleeting.

Nozaki is a recent transfer at a junior high school in rural Japan. Most the other students are indifferent towards her, but some are beyond cruel. After her parents convince her to stay away from school until graduation, the bullies (Taeko, Rumi, Hide, Tsutomo, Risa and Kyoko) decide to ramp up their efforts and burn her house down, killing her family and gravely injuring her baby sister. Nozaki returns in silence some time after to exact revenge on all those who crossed her.

This is a by the numbers revenge thriller, similar to Kevin Bacon's "Death Sentence" or even "Leon," if Natalie Portman had been both Mathilda and Leon. Sadly, the plot has very little beyond watching the worst children ever be bloodily murdered. It does give us a little extra in seeing how most of the children live with their families, hinting at story that would have been explored more fully in the manga, but most of it is predictable (head bully Taeko has a rich but neglectful parent, the most violent female has an abusive alcoholic father, the crazy one has a nice, useless mum). In a moment of humour, the parents arrive at the school to harass the homeroom teacher, each day more and more of them appearing as more of their children disappear, all culminatin in one of the more bizarre deaths of the film.

The major fault, though, is the cinematography. Typical of Japan, the palettes and styling are all very clean and lovely to look at (blood on snow always is a winner, and Nozaki's red pea coat beneath her flowing hair as she stalks victims in the winter is quite the evocative image), but the director and photographers really struggle with everything else. The use of CGI is jarring because it does not blend well with the real footage, the special effects make up for some of the injuries goes beyond cartoonish to just plain poorly executed, and the actors react so confusingly to the violence (all done in an effort to show the cuts and wounds being inflicted). It looks amateurish and clumsy at times. The dialogue is beyond simple, as well.

With a runtime of just under 2 hours, it definitely outstays its welcome. However, with a penchant for severed achilles tendons and rusty spikes going into eyes, there's plenty of visceral carnage for gore lovers to enjoy.

"Liverleaf" (2018) directed by Eisuke Naitô based this story on a teen dystopian view on "bullying" and angst. The film is a cinematic interpretation of the manga comic, "Misumisô" by Rensuke Oshikiri. The main target of the bullying is focused on "Haruka Nozaki" (helmed by Anna Yamada) and her family in a nondescript small town.

Naitô stays true to the type of overtop violence found in Japanese graphic novels. Most of violence was filmed in a stylish manner, even to the clothing and injuries endured onto the teen characters.

"Liverleaf" or "Misumisô" refers to a beautiful purple flower that blooms in the winter landscapes, which why many outdoor scenes were in amidst the social snowy landscape. Nozaki's revenge on her bullies starts to toil when a snowstorm appears.

Teen actors were good at delivering psychotic behavior, like the character, "Rumi" played by Rena Ôtsuka. Aside from the celluloid teen assaults, it is a teen love story, or stories. As the film proceeds to a dwindling number of teen survivors, there are plot discovery of a triangle appears.

I had viewed it at an international film festival where most of the viewers were starting to laugh when the violent scenes came up. I feel that their laughing was to deal with the on-screen gore; I would think that Naitô would please to see these reactions.

I haven't read the graphic novel on which this film is based so I am judging on its own.

The film contains the usual Japanese-style over-the-top bordering psychotically cruel bullying. Until one day the little cretins tormenting main character Nozaki cross the line and payback time comes around.

While the movie is graphic and gory enough to prevent a slip into boredom, viewers not used to Japanese cinema will have to really grit their teeth to stick with it, as the characters' reactions to violence and pain is characteristically Japanese: whether poked, prodded, or stabbed, they react with mute astonishment and passive inaction. Who stands and screams when they know they're next up on the chopping block? Answer: only people in Japanese movies. The only thing that saves it is the unrestrained gore.

But even the bloodbaths in the movie don't prevent it from testing your patience. At this running length, it really overstays its welcome. I had to repeatedly jump through snooze-inducing parts where a character is walking in the snow or reminiscing over good old times or just having a pointless conversation.