Sunday, January 23, 2011

The Aimed School (a.k.a. School In the Crosshairs) 1981 Nobuhiko Obayashi

Hoo Boy.  I have to admit that I've already seen Obayashi's Hausu.  If you haven't seen it, stop reading right now and rent/buy it this instant.  It's a Criterion!  What are you waiting for?  I'll wait....

Watched it?  Good, now we can continue.

The only thing I can compare The Aimed School to is the films of David Lynch and the Coen Brothers.  What I mean to say is, once you've seen a film by them, you know what you're getting into with each successive film.  Now having seen Hausu, The Aimed School won't seem quite so strange as if you had watched the movie cold.

The Aimed School concerns a young girl named Yuka.  She's the top student in her class, manager of the school's kendo team, and beginning a shy courtship with the star kendo athlete, Koji.  Plus, she's telekenetic.  At first, it's fun, you know, helping Koji win kendo matches by freezing his opponents, stopping toddlers from getting run over by dump trucks by turning back time...the usual.  It's when Yuka starts seeing the white haired man in the cape that things start to get weird.

A new girl starts at the school, and instantly the students start becoming

zombie-like fascists, who start taking private lessons at a strange new school and clamp down hard on anything fun, like impromptu dance numbers during gym class.

Can Yuka save her fellow students from the mystery man?  Will Koji win a tournament without psychic help?  Will he ever ask Yuka out on a date?  Is Neptune really that dangerous?   And finally, just how important is P.E. class to a well rounded education?  All these questions and more (much more) will be answered when you watch The Aimed School.

2 comments:

  1. Yesasia.com. It's only available as a Region 3 disc, so make sure you have an all-region DVD player and you're all set. Enjoy!

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