2018 ‘ミスミソウ’ Directed by Eisuke Naito
The story follows Nozaki Haruka, a middle school student who transfers to a new school in a small town because of her father's work. Unfortunately, she becomes a victim of horrific bullying, but since the school will be closing in 2 months after graduation, no one is willing to help her.
There's just something about my temperament that makes me react passionately to what I perceive to be unfair treatment. I've always been like that. That's what fueled my former professional and personal work insofar as getting involved in protests, organizing efforts with various activist groups/communities, public speaking, writing for social justice media outlets, etc.
Given that context, it should come as no surprise that I actively hate bullying. It's cowardice cloaked in bravado. It's weakness masquerading as power.
All that to say this - I love a movie that features bullies reaping the whirlwind and Liverleaf delivers exactly that in spades! 😃🍿
This starts as a drama and eventually navigates into thriller horror territory after bullying "gone too far" provokes…
TUESDAY GIRL'S VIOLENT JOKE. The most straight-forward a vigilante hour can be. Digitalized bloodshed can mostly get a pass as isn't always present here (it's definitely off-putting when it shows, however), though inappropriate instrumental choices (excluding the lyrical song that plays) and the immature edginess brought down what could've been something more rawer in emotion; Instead, this is executed in a way that isn't positively ambitious and only plays out like an enjoyable way for me to pass the time. What I have gotten from this however is a friendly letter to the healthy-consuming gorehounds and low-brow genre fans passing: maybe you'll find something worthy in your eyes here.
Gewalt erzeugt Gegengewalt, hat man dir das nicht erklärt?
Genau deshalb meine lieben Kinder wurde in Japan der Battle Royale eingeführt. Man kann ja schließlich nicht untätig dabei zusehen wie sich die Kids am helllichten Tag auf offener Straße gegenseitig abschlachten.
Aber mal ernsthaft, Liverleaf tischt schon harten Tobak auf. Das sind wohl die extremsten Mobbing Auswirkungen die ich je gesehen habe. Natürlich ist das ganze da es auf einem Manga Basiert entsprechend überzogen inszeniert und dementsprechend Stylish wird das Ganze dann auch zelebriert. Unterkühlt trifft es dabei ganz gut, denn wirklich sympathische Figuren hat der Film keine zu bieten. Jeder ist irgendwie ein ekelhaftes oder krankes Arschloch, selbst diejenigen von denen man es zunächst nicht erwartet. Darum fühlt man…
After moving from Tokyo to a small rural town, middle school student Nozaki is constantly tormented by a gang of classmates, in a school that's on the brink of closure. To avoid further conflict, her parents allow her to stay home until graduation. Unfortunately this only enrages her tormentors, who end up taking things too far.
So this is pretty much a super bloody, cartoonishly gory, snowy revenge tale. It's extremely satisfying seeing Nozaki, the emotionally defeated underdog, take down her bullies, who show no remorse for what they've done and are only concerned about getting caught.
We get to see them sulk and whinge like little bitches as soon as they discover the tables are turned. I love how…
Alternative title : Fuck em up!
A story plays out with a girl who is being bullied ever since she moved to a new school. As push comes to shove matters for the main character gets worse, worse to a point of bloodshed.
This really isn’t a film to show your Granny, I’ll say that.
I have actually been missing a revenge title, some have been good and some are weaker than others. Liverleaf is square in the middle. It’s an intense story of revenge, and damn it’s brutal. Probably the most brutal of films I have seen recently. The cgi isn’t so good, which is sadly a shame. But it still shows.
For the first hour I loved every…
What better way to follow my recent watch of one of the all time greatest movies Sátántangó, than a Japanese horror movie. I mean, it's almost a month until Halloween now so I really should start to engage.
Unfortunately, despite the very pretty movie cover, and pretty cast members, and pretty locations this is, well, how can I put this?
Predictable is an understatement. This is about as one dimensional as it gets. Sad girl looks sad, gets bullied, is pushed too far, goes ape-shit, blah blah blah the end.
There are some other things, including a couple of rather flamboyant Final Destination style theatrical erm, 'endings' but otherwise you could watch the first 10 minutes, go have dinner, take…
More like a grisly samurai revenge film (in a middle school setting) than a horror film. Which is interesting to say the least. The drama has some nice, dark moments, and the kills and gore are great (though the CGI blood looks pretty silly). I also really loved the score. But it's incredibly melodramatic, with twists that are pretty all really obvious, and honestly reached a point that felt like a decent ending, but still somehow had 30 minutes left to go. So it loses a lot of steam for me, though it's still a neat bit of teenage hyper violence with a beautiful, snowy setting.
Seems eerily believable with how petty and mean teenagers can be. Never loses its human emotion in all of the vicious violence. I really loved the desolate, snowy atmosphere of this small mountain side Japanese town. There was one twist with a character in the last act that I found a little hard to swallow but it did lead nicely to an insane finale.
With this, Battle Royale, Confessions and Lesson of the Evil, what is it with Japan and brutally nihilistic teenage movies? I love them for it though! This isn’t quite in the same league as those aforementioned films, but it’s still a wild ride. Liverleaf definitely earns bonus points for having a lot of bloodshed in snow, the image of red on white always brings me joy.
What is it with these schools the bullying\violence is rife! Bland is safe, and cruel rules. Its not just a group in this film, it's the entire lot of them.
It goes beyond, beyond, and beyond. Thankfully I had some sense of relief when vengeance momentarily hits.
I was constantly reminded of the rather excellent Himeanole while watching this, there are some similar thematic elements and this also presents a serious drama with everyday issues that resorts to extreme violence to help hammer it's point home.
What starts out as a serious take on high school bullying quickly gets mean, nasty and VERY bloody, but it's biggest flaw is that it's just so uneven. Every good thing about the film can be countered with something that's borderline amateurish. For every good performance, there's a terrible one. For every great shot in a beautiful location, there's a daytime soap style sequence. For every vicious stabbing there's a flying eyeball or Sushi typhoon-esque snow blower spraying blood everywhere. It's…
Damn. I thought rural America had problems. If Riverleaf is to be believed, rural America is a comparative Utopia.
Best viewed as parody, Riverleaf goes over the top and just keeps on going. A giant snowblower proves that no excess is too great for this gore drenched revenge feast.
Cartoonish bullying goes way too far, then way too far, and then a few light years further. There's only one tonic for this common Japanese malady--REVENGE!
The snow conveniently begins to fall as the blood begins to flow, giving viewers the full red-on-white, Lady Snowblood treatment. Our hero goes temporarily mute, giving her a touch of Scorpion stoicism (until she blows it by crying). By the end (Spoilers!), essentially the entire town has been murdered in one horrific way or another. I think we're supposed to take it seriously.
Three stars because it's funny as hell.
An unbelievably mean and nihilistic film that portrays such an ugly, merciless world that not only lacks hope, but lacks humanity too. It's completely relentless in the creation and embellishment of suffering, while highlighting that acts of cruelty and violence can be perpetuated by nothing more than boredom.
I can't name many movies as cold and vicious as this one tbh
