Night's Tightrope (Shojo, 2016)

Hong Kong Panorama Corporation Ltd. 2017 DVD edition



Yes, another teenage orientated japanese film based on a Kanae Minato novel, other are i.a. Confessions, A Chorus of Angels, Penance and The
Snow White Murder Case. Minato, something of the Queen of the Morbid and this teenage drama depicts the quite morbid thoughts of some
confused young women, maybe Suicide Girls ... but without the tattoos and goth.
As we've seen in many high-school dramas, it's hard to be a teenager in Japan, growing up, with school bullying and thinking too much about the
dark stuff. In this film we get to know some students at the Sakuragawa Jogakuin High School, girls that think a lot about death and who plays
drowning games (in scenes that are clearly inspired by the great South Korean High School mystery Memento Mori).

(South Korean classic Memento Mori anyone ?)

High School student Yuki Sakura (Tsubasa Honda) is an aspiring young writer, working on her debut novel Night's Tightrope, and her buddy
Atsuko (Mizuki Yamamoto) an ex-Kendo youth champion is badly bullied by her class-mates, also on social media with the main sweet message
being - "Atsuko, DIE!".
A third girl, Shiori (Rio Sato), joins the unhappy duo and she's even more confused wanting to see dead bodies and people dying, and selling
school girl fetish sex to dirty men for blackmail purposes (kogals luring perverts; japanese men may have a fetisch for schoolgirls?)

OK, this film was pretty OK, nice photography and with a mildly interesting if dark story. For me, the best thing about it though was the song
played during the end credits, that was how i heard of the great japanese rock duo/band Glim Spanky.
I think the song is called "When i peer into darkness" . The group are fronted by the singer and guitarist Remi Matsuo and lead guitarist
Hiroki Kamemoto, and Remi - Wow! - what a delightful gravelly voice she has. They Rock! and can also be heard in Sion Sono's bloodbath Tag

DVD is presented in anamorphic widescreen with a japanese 5.1 DD audio with english subtitles. No extras

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