The debut film of Ryohei Watanabe, made at the age of 24 with only a £10,000 budget! It concerns two teenage girls and their friendships. The first friend is Misa, a stocky girl who is viciously dubbed Pooh at school, due to her surname “Kumada” (bear + rice paddy) and masculine frame. The other friend is Izumi, who says she can’t make and keep friends because all the other girls are jealous of her looks.
Together, the two become best of friends owed to them both being such firm outsiders. Their blossoming friendship starts off as endearing and as the two spend more and more time together the sheen of the relationship peels away. When the darkness and violence eventually bleed into the mix, that authenticity turns what could just be another tale of teenage friendship gone awry, into a genuinely disturbing thriller.
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