“Shinji Somai’s films have the power to change and sustain your life,” said Ryusuke Hamaguchi. One of the great retrospectives this year thus far was that of the Japanese director, presented by NYC’s Japan Society. His eclectic work is well-deserving of discovery and now Cinema Guild is bringing two of his gems to wider audiences, Typhoon Club and P. P. Rider. The former, winner of the Grand Prix at the first Tokyo International Film Festival in 1985, will be opening on September 8 at IFC Center and now a new trailer has arrived.
Here’s the synopsis: “Typhoon Club is widely regarded as the seminal film of director Shinji Somai’s career. A work of raw, elemental power, it follows an ensemble of junior high students in a provincial town, beset by a summer-y malaise as a typhoon looms in the air. When the storm makes landfall, the teens hole up in their school unsupervised, while another classmate (Yuki Kudo) disappears alone on a harrowing trek to the big city. Set adrift in a world suddenly unmoored, the students let loose their pent-up angst and burgeoning passions in a series of propulsive, phantasmic scenes—part apocalypse, part utopia—as the deluge rages on into the night. Observed in daring long takes, director Somai gives material form to the students’ turbulent inner lives. When day breaks and the rains let up, the youngsters open their eyes to a world in ruins—or a world renewed. The 10th best Japanese film of all time, according to Japan’s Kinema Junpo poll.”
Jaime Grijalba said in his feature, “A masterpiece of the genre that has been most commonly associated with Somai is Typhoon Club (1985), showcasing a week in the life of a class of students as they approach their first year of high school. Considered to be one of the best Japanese films of all-time, it radiates from a typhoon that traps them inside their school. Yuji Kato’s script encompasses most of the tribulations of the kids at that age, from their frustrations, depression, sexual explorations, and overall joie de vivre.”
See the trailer and poster below.
Typhoon Club opens on September 8 at IFC Center and will expand.