‘Forgiven Children’: No clear-cut truths to a child’s crimes
Bullying is an evergreen theme of Japanese films centered on teens, with the focus typically on the victims. But in "Forgiven Children," Eisuke Naito’s clear-eyed, hard-hitting drama, a bullying incident results in a death that ruins the lives of the perpetrator and his family. Based ...
'Liverleaf': Sadistic school bullies get their comeuppance in a bloody, bleak thriller
From "Battle Royale" to "The World of Kanako," the past 20 years of Japanese cinema have yielded countless examples of school kids behaving very, very badly. Director Eisuke Naito is a specialist in the genre: He started his career with the charmingly titled "Let's ...
Grim universe of horror manga 'Litchi Hikari Club'
When I was 13, I belonged to a neighborhood gang called, ironically, "The Hoods." We committed minor acts of vandalism as a sort of game and talked about invading the turf of a rival gang a few blocks over (but never got around to ...
