“Graveyard of Youth” is as somber as the title suggests. Okuda divides the film in two halves telling two different stories which apparently do not have much in common. But a decisive twist will unveil the link between them. As in his other movies, Okuda plays one of the main protagonists.
“Graveyard of Youth” is screening at Helsinki Cine Aasia
None of the characters has a name in this story. The one played by Okuda himself works at a Chinese restaurant, a solitary and tough guy. In one of the first scenes of the film, he gets in trouble with some rowdies and fights with them. He has a female colleague who looks up to him and asks him for help, because she fears that her teenager son is bullied. After an initial hesitation, he tries to talk to the boy who has no other male figure to relate to, since his father is absent.
There are really bullies pestering the boy, but he doesn't ask for help. Not even when he is asked to sacrifice his girlfriend to them. In the meantime, the Okuda character runs into the boy's father who is back and is violent on his wife. The confrontation between the two men has its consequences: The boy's father takes revenge and buries his opponent, believing he is dead, in the woods.
A completely other story develops between an actress at a local theatre company and an assistant drawer at a manga workshop. They meet at an informal gathering of friends, spend directly the night together and a few missed calls and a shared pizza later, she moves in with him and they become inseparable. But the idyll does not last too long.
The protagonists of the film are all loners. The communication between them is disturbed. Violence replaces words. For all of them it's difficult to make others hear their needs. There is actually not one character that is remotely sympathetic. All lack combative spirit or simple are of weak personality. It is not precisely clear what Okuda wants to communicate with his film and through his characters. He depicts a quite pessimistic society, in which not only solidarity but also joy is rare. And only a very tiny hint of irony or humor is visible in the film. For the rest of the movie, the story is told very crudely. At times it's overexcited paired with a too eccentric acting. The quick cuts can't balance this out, but rather enhance it.
All characters belong to a rather low social class. A particular indicator for that is the very modest apartment complex the boy and her mother live in. Moreover, the story is set in summer. It is very hot. Everyone sweats, the heat affects also the temperament. It is literally not possible for them to cool down. This is why the situation gets worse and worse.
In the case of “Graveyard of Youth” is the complex, not classical plot development that is the most interesting part. It ensures a certain dynamic. The division in two parts is not particularly well-balanced. The first story is much more dense than the second. And, to be honest, in total, both stories are rather lacking a bit of depth.
As already said, the acting is not very subtle. This goes nearly for all characters, maybe except from the young girl in the ensemble, that has only few scenes though. In general, the female roles are rather secondary, and do not show particularly emancipated women either.
The strength of the film is its episodic, fragmented style. It would have been interesting to follow one of the stories rather than have two and to give more attention to the description of the social setting and background of the characters.
