HIMIZU
 

Set against a background of a ruined country wrecked by an unnamed disaster, the film focuses on a 15 year old youth called Sumida, who lives in a shack, dropping out of school to run his family’s boat rental business. Beaten, hated and ignored in equal measures by his mother and father, Sumida does his best to live a quiet, normal life while fighting off debt collectors and gangsters. Aside from a ragtag group of squatters made homeless by the catastrophe, the only person who cares about Sumida is his classmate Chazawa, an odd girl and self-confessed stalker who dedicates herself to helping him however she can, whether he likes it or not. It all gradually becomes too much for the tortured boy and he starts to tip over into homicidal madness, while Chazawa tries to pull him back from the brink.

Almost every frame and scene of “Himizu”, packed with bleak locations and tsunami imagery suggesting a country stunned by disaster and in a state of physical, moral and economic disarray. This gives the film a powerful sense of currency, as well as underlining its themes, depicting a younger generation utterly abandoned by their elders, who themselves have lost hope and have nothing to offer other than hostility and torments. Brutality is inherent in every child-parent bond, with Sumida on the receiving end of countless beatings from his father, and Chazawa’s mother constantly planning her death. As a result of growing up in such a hateful void, with school failing to provide anything other than useless platitudes, Sumida’s descent into violent rage is from early on clearly inevitable, a tragic, though unavoidable fate. His quest for meaning and identity makes for gripping and extremely affecting viewing, playing out in frequently surprising fashion, and the film is fiercely dramatic in 

near-Shakespearian fashion, backed by a sombre classical score.