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Taifū kurabu

Typhoon Club
Retrospective 2023
© Directors Company
This school-age tragedy is set in a secondary school in Tokyo over five days during which a typhoon grows, rages, and abates. After class clown Akira is caught watching his fellow students partying at the school’s indoor pool, he is deemed a peeping tom and held underwater so long he almost drowns. Meanwhile, the teacher who has been summoned has his own problems: the mother and uncle of a fellow teacher with whom he is having an affair are trying to force him to marry her, so he doesn’t have much attention to spare for the woes of his pupils. The children talk about life, death, and reincarnation; about a lesbian couple among them, and about the typhoon. As the storm draws closer, a sense of aggression swells among the schoolchildren … The storm of emotions in Typhoon Club is unleashed with the insistence of a force of nature. In an escalating rondel of episodes, including a brawl and an attempted rape, the film depicts a “spring awakening” with feelings erupting like hot lava flows. It captures the self-sufficient world of youth poised between exuberance and depression, while the camera keeps a respectful distance.
by Shinji Sōmai
with Yuichi Mikami, Yūki Kudō, Tomokazu Miura, Toshiyuki Matsunaga, Shigeru Benibayashi, Saburō Date, Tomiko Ishii, Kaori Kobayashi, Yuka Ōnishi, Toshinori Omi Japan 1985 Japanese 115’ Colour

For the 2023 Retrospective, internationally renowned directors, actors, and screenwriters were asked to select their personal coming-of-age favourites.
Ryūsuke Hamaguchi on his selection

With

  • Yuichi Mikami
  • Yūki Kudō
  • Tomokazu Miura
  • Toshiyuki Matsunaga
  • Shigeru Benibayashi
  • Saburō Date
  • Tomiko Ishii
  • Kaori Kobayashi
  • Yuka Ōnishi
  • Toshinori Omi

Crew

Director Shinji Sōmai
Screenplay Yūji Katō
Cinematography Akihiro Itō
Editing Isao Tomita
Music Shigeaki Saegusa
Art Director Noriyoshi Ikeya
Producer Susumu Miyasaka

Produced by

Director’s Company

Additional information

DCP: Chuo Eigaboeki, Tokyo

In Focus