Sômai Shinji’s anti-coming-of-age film is as beautiful as it is troubling.

The typhoon that these schoolmates use an excuse not to go home also serves as an objective correlative for their raging, potentially dangerous emotions, as death makes its first encroachment on their not-so-innocent lives.

They describe the action without ever interpreting it. After a while, one realizes that there really isn't an awful lot to interpret.

The watchword of the film is naturalism—realism with the hard edges preserved. [...] These kids are stuck between a maturing body and still childish mind.