Stories about teenagers solving crimes go back to the prewar Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew mysteries and beyond. Shusuke Kaneko’s “Gold Boy,” however, flips this script: The film’s teenage trio seeks to profit off a double murder.
Scripted by Takehiko Minato from a hit series that streamed on the Chinese iQiyi platform, “Gold Boy” compresses its 12-episode model into a fast-paced, twist-filled entertainment. Though the diabolical cleverness and ruthlessness of the underage protagonists strain credulity, the film thrills and chills in equal measure as it approaches its unpredictable climax.
Kaneko also directed the acclaimed 1988 supernatural fantasy “Summer Vacation 1999,” which cast female actors in the roles of three teenage boys who spend the summer alone at their boarding school and encounter the doppelganger of a dead classmate.