Typhoon Club is based off a screenplay by Yuji Kato, director Shinji Sōmai crafts a coming of age tale without sentimentality for its disaffected youths. This is made clear in the opening scene as teenage girls having an infectious dance party at the swimming pool turn their attentions onto Akira (Toshiyuki Matsunaga), a boy swimming in the water who nearly drowns when the girls play a cruel trick on him.
The looming entrance exams may signify how these junior high students are on the cusp of adulthood, yet that clashes with their difficulties at growing. This is phenomenally captured during a single take within a classroom as the struggle of Michiko (Yuka Ônishi), to let something go results in tensions erupting in explosive ways. The students’ raging emotions are effectively conveyed throughout, be it two girls exploring their sexuality, student Rie (Youki Kudoh), running off to Tokyo, or a distressing chase through an empty school as unwanted advances fall on deaf ears.
With the arrival of a typhoon, six students find themselves trapped within the school as the storm settles in. Worrying throughout the situation is Mikami (Yuichi Mikami), feeling alienated as his agonising over Rie and calls for help are ignored by others. The only opportunity he has to escape those fears is during a group dance scene, allowing a momentary bliss as they feel free and without a care in the world. It’s a joyous moment, but it’s fleeting for characters drowning in insecurities and fears.
Despite instances of the children having fun, these are fleeting within a dark work which questions whether an individual can rise above a species
While carrying uncertainties about life the children are left to theorize about answers or commit actions which they discover carry consequences. Exacerbating worries about the future are how they see adults for what they are – flawed humans affected by their own issues. When children look to these elder figures for reassurance about the future, being met with childish actions instead leaves them with more worries. Bringing alive the story is a methodical pacing that allows for reflection as the themes weigh heavily, although this may be a bit slow for some viewers, and there’s also a feeling that Rei’s journey is an afterthought for much of the runtime.
Despite instances of the children having fun, these are fleeting within a dark work which questions whether an individual can rise above a species. When other humans seem so unfortunate and off-putting, is there hope for the kids to persevere in spite of unsavoury examples of what they could become? That’s a lingering question which no amount of dancing can permanently expel. That Shinji Somai’s Typhoon Club asks all of these questions, this is an incredible, humanist coming of age tale.
Typhoon Club is out now on Third WIndow Blu-Ray
James’s Archive – Typhoon Club
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