Story:
Jun is 23 years old and he still lives with his family
and works at a convenience store. The girl he's always
loved married a former high school classmate who used
to tease him, and his best friend who always stuck up
for him, Kiminobu, left town a long time ago. Kiminobu
is 25 years old and has been working at a Pachinko parlour,
saving money so that he can surprise his girlfriend
with a wedding proposal. She demeans his proposal, demands
his savings, breaks up with him and makes to leave his
apartment. In a moment of rage, he accidentally strangles
her to death. Despairingly, he returns to his hometown,
meets up with Jun and implores him to join him on a
bicycle trip to a mass suicide near Shizuoka, on the
Pacific Ocean, held by a group called 'Life Experiment:
Glowing Growing'.
Review: "Glowing growing" is a
powerful and surprising movie. The official website
boasts, 'THE GREATEST STUDENT FILM EVER...Incredible
geniuses aged merely 22 on average Dug up sponsors,
self-produced, took on all the necessary bussiness
themselves And with much cooperation throughout, Finally
came up with "glowing Growing", a masterpiece
taken with a 35 mm camera.'
I haven't read such glowing self-appreciation since
I last visited Vincent Gallo's website, and I have
to admit that it did not give me a good first impression.
I don't know if 'glowing growing' is the greatest
student film ever, and I personally doubt it, but
it's one of the better movies I've seen so far this
year. Maybe even the best. It's better than Vincent
Gallo's Buffalo '66, anyway. (Hah, take that www.VincentGallo.com)
Actually, I liked Buffalo '66 -- I just don't indentify
quite as well with psychotic, bigoted, self-hating
assholes.
"Glowing Growing"'s concept is simple,
but inherently powerful. The questions so explicitely
pondered by the characters, 'I didn't ask to be born
and I should be free to leave when I want. I won't
be punished, right?' reminded me a bit of Egoyan's
Exotica, and they could have lead to some painfully
corny dialog, but the script writer has managed, judging
by the English subtitles, anyway, to walk the fine
line between poignant and ridiculously cheesy.
Both characters are deeply sympathetic and despite
what they say, they both seem to have a lot of fun
during the movie. At first this bothered me and I
thought that the script was self-contradicting; after
Jun explains that he isn't happy and doesn't think
he ever will be, he's seen smiling, laughing and horsing
around in the next scene. It becomes increasingly
clear, however, that this is not a defect with the
script, but rather a deliberate analysis of human
contradictions and although Jun insists that he's
unhappy, the viewer knows that that is not completely
true and that happiness need not forever elude him.
Just the same, Jun and Kiminobu cycle relentlessly
towards the mass suicide, leaving the audience to
silently implore them to reconsider and wonder how
it is that they could miss what is so obvious to the
viewer.
Despite the weighty subject matter of the movie,
it is certainly not devoid of humour. The characters
enjoy a pleasant interaction with each other and some
interesting secondary characters are also introduced
along the way. The film also starts like a typical
road trip movie, and it's enjoyable just to soak in
the Japanese countryside and suburban decay while
enjoying the downtemp music by DJ Country.
This is the real Japan, no doubt about it; beautiful
traditions and a culture that looks only half-lived
in. Jun works at a convenience store and Kiminobu
works at a pachinko parlour - could they be any more
non-descript or any more emblematic of modern Japan
and the modern Japanese? Even the final suicide ceremony
revels in Japan's (scratch that, the world's) confused
identity; throughout the whole movie, their destination
for the mass suicide was a place by the ocean -- a
common metaphor for the end of life and a return to
nothingness -- but the final suicide ceremony is conducted
in an indoor swimming pool, with the participants
looking more likely to take part in pool aerobics
than a suicide pact.
I don't feel that the film ever really tried to answer
the questions asked by Jun and Kiminubo. Instead,
it's a sad documentary of human contradictions and
the pain of modern existence. It also struck me as
both simultaneously a plaintive appeal to those who
might consider suicide to reconsider and a catharsis
for those of us left behind to realise the existence
of an infinite gulf that can separate us from each
other and stop us from ever really understanding each
other's motivations.
