Utae and Aiko are pupils at an elite all-girl private boarding school in 1930s Japan. Aiko is a model student from a prominent, wealthy family. She excels in all subjects, is popular with both staff and pupils, and is frequently 'wheeled out' by the school as an example of what an education at their establishment can achieve. Utae is a misfit. Her less affluent family barely manages to cover the cost of her education, she struggles in most subjects, and is regarded by staff and pupils alike as 'odd'. Despite this the two girls form a friendship that eventually develops into a romantic relationship. Utae and Aiko see the need to keep this hidden, but they're not the only people with secrets; the school principle is using his position to rape students, whilst Aiko's father - a school inspector and pillar of the community - brings geishas home at night for sex whilst his wife and daughter are still in the house. However, when Utae is made pregnant by the principal, life for the two girls begins to take a dark, downwards spiral, towards revenge and death.
IMDb categorises this as Drama/Horror/Mystery. The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) calls it Horror. In truth it's a hard film to label. The first two thirds feature several softcore scenes between the two girls. However, at the same time there are harder sequences of rape, psychological abuse, forced abortion, and one very hard-hitting (and bloody) scene of self-induced abortion (where a girl repeatedly rams her own stomach into the corner of a piano). The third act takes a sharp turn again into what may be genuinely supernatural, or an elaborate deception - or even simply hallucination. Whichever, it leads to a bizarre finale.
The direction by Masaru Konuma is fine, the performances (especially from Asami Ogawa as Utae, and the late Yûko Asuka as Aiko) are excellent, and the soundtrack (from Japanese prog band Cosmos Factory) is atmospheric and catchy. The big downside is that the plot at times is *very* confusing, and the uncertainty over what's real and what's not in the third act (for me) makes it hard to feel sympathy or empathy for the characters involved (the original story on which the film is based was claimed to be 'unfilmable', so I guess that could account for the confusion). Looking online, opinions on the film run from 'weird, don't understand what it was all about', to 'struggled to finish it - it was too distressing'. The best I can say is it's *interesting*. I may watch it again one day to see if I can pick up more from it. But for now, 5.5/10.
