Coming of Age, Drama

River’s Edge

リバーズ・エッジ

Directed by: Isao Yukisada
2018 / 118 minutes / Strictly 18+

A brutal and turbulent coming-of-age drama laced with violence, sex, and death

Screened as part of the JFF 2018.

Award winning director Isao Yukisada brings to life a darkly realistic depiction of a socially pressured, disillusioned generation of teenagers and their unrelenting encounters with violence, set in the lead up to a traumatic era of Japanese society. The moody cinematography of River’s Edge turns the grass-land and industrial smoke of mid-1990’s Tokyo ominous and highlights the ugliness of the world both as a whole and within the school itself, as a group of school students with unusual and twisted bonds come together and fall apart, intensified by a gruesome discovery on the banks of a river. Yukisada’s choice to convey a sense of cinema vérité with in-character interviews throughout the film elevates River’s Edge beyond the standard angst-ridden teen drama.

68th Berlin International Film Festival – Panorama Division