Boy's Choir
by Akira Ogata
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Atsushi Ito, Ken Mitsuishi, Ryoko Takizawa, Sora T?ma, Teruyuki KagawaDirector: Akira Ogata
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Subtitled); Japanese (Original Language)
Format: Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 130 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-05-30
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Picture This
Movie Reviews of Boy's Choir
Movie Review: Weird and Disappointing
Summary: 3 Stars
This is a strange and somewhat misleading movie which does not have a gay subject matter. It may be construed that the relationship between the two main characters to be gay, but it is not.
The beginning of the movie shows a young boy, Michio, witnessing his father's death in a hospital while he is plotting 3 of his bodily functions. That right off the bet is rather strange. Even though the movie is set in the 70's in Japan, rather a turbulent times for that country, I would think that hospitals were equipped with charts.
At the moment of death, Michio's father comes alive and blurts a phrase, making no sense. This theme of what happens after life seems to be a recurring one.
Michio becomes an orphan and is sent to a Catholic orphanage in the country side. The school is run by a pastor, who used to be a revolutionary of the Communist Party in Japan. Later on in the movie one his former accomplices, a girl, who is wanted along with him for bombing a police headquarters, shows back in his life and at the school. He wants nothing to do with her as his past life is over. She blows herself up into pieces while the police attempts to arrest her. He gets arrested but released.
In the orphanage, Michio meets Yasuo, an effeminate looking boy. He becomes his only friend in the beginning because Michio has a problem with stuttering, and the other boys pick on him. The school has a boy's choir and Yasuo sings soprano as well as he is a leader in this group. Michio joins the choir.
The movie goes on in portraying the development of friendship between these two boys. It dwell a lot on the choir's duties, the music, and lyrics, which are very political, heavy handed to the Red Communist Party (making the movie a rather political statement.)
Even though this movie is a story about a boy's choir, and it does that rather well, the plot could have been much better. The gay relationship between these two boys could have been developed better. I think that was what this movie was intended for? I read in a synopsis somewhere that Yasuo becomes jealous of Michio looking at a girl. I missed that.
Michio looses his stuttering and becomes confident of himself. Yasuo looses his voice while away in the summer (he ran away to Tokyo to march with the revolutionaries). Michio tries to help him cope with his problem, returning the favor. But again the heavy tone political statement comes back. The choir goes for competition in the semi-final and win third place. Yasuo commits suicide at the very end but again the nonsensical remark at the point of death comes back. The end is very confusing as they show the choir with Yasou singing soprano. Is this after death?
The movie is convoluted as it depicts many topics. What happens after death, the political statement about the Communist Party in the 70's in Japan, a boy's choir in a Catholic orphanage in the country side. a pastor who is running away from his past, Christianity versus Buddhism, etc.
This is my second Japanese movie. I liked the first one better.
Summary of Boy's Choir
Michio, 15, is sent to a remote Catholic boys orphanage soon after the tragic death of his father. Awkward and unable to speak without stuttering, Michio finds it nearly impossible to get along in his new environment. Yasuo, star soprano in the school choir befriends Michio and agrees to help him escape, but later convinces him to come back and join the choir. While rehearsing with the choir at a neighboring girls school, Yasuo becomes jealous of Michio's sudden fascination with the opposite sex. To vent his frustrations, Yasuo spends the summer marching in anti-war demonstrations in Tokyo. When Yasuo returns to school in the fall, he is horrified to discover that his angelic voice has changed. The second gem in the Tales from the Orphanage collection. "A richly embroidered coming-of-ager. An impressive first pic." - Derek Elley, VarietyArt House & International DVD Video
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