Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Good concept, poorly executed.

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

so i decided to get around to watching this after seeing a pretty screencap from the film and googling it, reading a synopsis that sounded interesting and finding out that it had a cult following among both western and Japanese fans. i've viewed the film and *gasp* dear god my opinion is blasphemous--i really wasn't a fan. I was surprised to only see one other negative user review thinking it was my fault but nah not really. FIRST, i enjoyed the cinematography, acting and score. the j-alt/punk rock soundtrack was amazing utilized, not a lot of diversity but it was as rattly and raw as what was unfolding on the screen so props for that. the acting was also nothing crazy but the nihilistic tones of the film were conveyed very well with sincere acting that depicted withdrawn yet oddly human characters. the imagery and overall cinematography was quite beautiful, and visually it was pleasant to watch; special mention to the sakura porn that popped up every once in a while because those were especially beautiful but thats just my inner weeb talking. BUT i really wasn't a fan of the actual characters and plot. i thought they were icy--and i'm not talking reserved icy--i mean detached, disconnected and barely relatable. so as the events were unfolding throughout the film, i didn't really care to keep up with the people at the centre of the conflicts. i also didn't like the plot as it was vague with seemingly random events at times. i've seen other reviews defending the film saying its a fascinating take on disillusioned teenage Japanese boys a-la battle royale and how they struggle to find their meaning as adults blah blah blah. i'm not going to argue against that, i've just seen similar ground covered in related works that make this film look weak and barely pointed. if anyone's seen suicide club, i think that touched on similar themes but really drove the meaning home. in terms of trying to find one's place, NANA & a bunch of other manga series make a much greater effort and execute their message effectively. i didn't see that in this film, and a bit of metaphor and musing from characters for 5 minutes max definitely doesn't interest me towards the whole coming-of-age story its trying to push. maybe i don't get it, maybe if i was Japanese it would make more sense but i've enjoyed works in a similar vein and found little to love with blue spring (aoi haru)

I was pretty excited about BLUE SPRING based on a few reviews that I'd read comparing it to BATTLE ROYALE and LORD OF THE FLIES - well, this film is neither. BLUE SPRING was to me, a confusing and relatively pointless film, other than showing a bunch of angst-ridden Japanese teenagers in a weird school where they pretty much run the show.A gang leader is chosen amongst the students by participating in a potentially dangerous game called "clapping" - and Kujo is crowned the new leader of the senior class. His best pal Aoki is a slow-witted fellow who eventually gets tired of constantly playing second-fiddle to Kujo, and the two come to blows over it. There's a bunch of other random and pretty meaningless stuff that happens in between all this that never really amounts to anything...From what I had read about BLUE SPRING before seeing it, I was hoping for either a violent social-statement ala BATTLE ROYALE, or perhaps an engaging tale of "lost youth". Unfortunately, it didn't deliver on either end. Stylistically, the film was good, but I was never engaged by the characters and couldn't care less about what happened to any of them. A few of the sub-plots were interesting, but were never expanded on enough to take anything meaningful from them. Overall, I found that the "parts" of BLUE SPRING never converged to form any sort of worthwhile "whole". Other reviewers seemed to have found something in this film that I didn't - personally I thought it was average at best, and would only recommend it to Japanese cinephile completists...5/10

I really enjoyed watching this film despite all those scenes that aren't every good to watch. You have to have a strong stomach to watch this film because there are some very disturbing scenes in this film. To me, I think its a movie about losers who can't forget about what they really want in life. The ending was good and every emotional. The film kind of reminds me of when I was in high school, choosing what I want to accomplish in life. Plus, the music went along so well with the movie, in fact I heard the songs played in the movie before I got my hands on the film. Overall, 7/10...there were some scenes that I just didn't enjoy watching.

The closing night movie for the SF Indie Fest is a vaguely coming of age type drama, set entirely within the grounds of a Japanese boy's school. Here, the kids all run around in gangs, sleep in lectures and fight at break times. Every wall in the place is covered in graffiti. Ryuhei Matsuda (the effeminate guy from GOHATTO) stars as Kuja, a senior who becomes the school's official gang leader by winning at "The Clapping Game". This game involves the kids hanging from a railing on the edge of the school roof, letting go and seeing how many times they can clap their hands before their nerve fails and they grab back on.From here we follow the progress of his friends and enemies throughout a part of the school year, the challenges to his leadership and the pressure of the school system felt by everyone. There's a hell of a lot of violence goes on in the school, and we get the impression that life as a Japanese school boy is a difficult dangerous business.It's a pretty bleak and cheerless vision - between this and BATTLE ROYALE you'd be forgiven for thinking that the Japanese school system was on the point of explosion or collapse, with the youth as disaffected as they come. How close this is to reality I don't know, but the friend I saw it with tells me that the classroom scenes are pretty close to how it actually is.The cast all perform well - Ryuhei Matsuda has such a striking appearance that he doesn't really need to do anything to create an impression, and indeed he spends most of the movie being aloof and impenetrable. This contrasts with the energies and frustrations evident in the other characters, particulary his best friend Aoki.I enjoyed the movie a lot... good characters, and well filmed/scored, with interesting developments. It's based on a collection of autobiographical short stories from a manga artist, which shows a little bit in the episodic nature of the plot, but it's all weaved together well for the movie. Worth looking out for if you don't mind your high school movies nihilistic, violent and bleak.