Showing @ Filmhouse, Edinburgh, Sun 26 Feb only

Tomoyuki Furumaya / Japan / 2001 / 98mins

Teenage rebellion and alienation in a small town – if Bad Company was an American movie it would come with a soft rock soundtrack, muscle cars and a cameo from a once big 80s star. But this isn’t the US – even though it clearly wishes it was – it’s disciplined Japan, a country where teachers can use techniques of control which would be seen as extreme in Guantanamo Bay.

This is the controlled environment that shoplifting Sadatomo (Yamato Okitsu) and his friends live in and when they’re caught they’re forced by their ultra-stern teacher to write an essay of self-criticism. Whilst the others either don’t bother with the assignment or write what they think their parents want to hear, it’s only Sadatomo who produces a truly self-castigating piece of literature and so pleased is his teacher that he enters it into a prize which proves the catalyst for the slow burn revolt at the heart of this film.

The performances are accomplished with plenty of low-key teen angst; Okitsu lets Sadatomo’s resentment build slowly as we watch his move from gang leader to positive role model and inevitably to its tragic endgame. But that doesn’t make up for the fact that this is a film with really nothing new to say on the overworked subject of adolescent rebellion.

The scale model of the Statue of Liberty which looms over the town is a perfect metaphor for the power of American cinema invading this film. There’s nothing uniquely Japanese in Tomoyuki Furumaya’s film, this tale could take place in Oklahoma or Wisconsin and the debt it owes to everything from Rebel Without A Cause to Stand By Me is all too evident. This is a well made, small piece of cinema and the world Furumaya captures is believable but in the end it provides neither a fresh nor culturally incisive enough perspective to make more than of average interest.