Every once in a while a person will see a movie that just leaps out and grabs him. Bluntly stated, Toshiaki Toyoda's Blue Spring is such a film. It's a wonderful, powerful, shocking, tragic, poetic, spellbinding movie, and it's coming to the US via the fine folks at Artsmagic Entertainment.

Blue Spring presents us with a gang of seniors at a Japanese high school. We meet them in a breathtaking opening sequence as they climb to the school's roof to play a game. A railing runs around the edge of the roof, and those-who-dare climb over it so that they now stand on the other side, feet on the ledge, hands on the railing, facing the rest of the clan. The game starts. They clap once and then catch themselves before they fall. Round two. They must clap twice before catching themselves. The game continues until everyone but one boy has quit out of fear. This boy is Kujo; he now runs the gang.

The boys while their days away in the concrete box of a school. Bored learning algebra and Japanese history, they fearlessly cut class to play soccer and mahjong. When three boys insult Kujo's diarrhetic right-hand-man Aoki, the gang administer swift justice, crushing one boy's genitals with a baseball bat and beating the others severely.

Time passes. One of the gang members murders another and is dragged away to prison. Another leaves to join the yakuza: the school's baseball team can't possibly make the finals; he has no reason to stay. Aoki becomes disillusioned with the gang under Kujo's disinterested command. He hijacks what little of the gang is left and begins bullying everyone in the school in order to establish his dominance; however, there is one boy whom he can't intimidate - Kujo. In order for social order to be restored, one of the two will have to assert his dominance once and for all.

What is fascinating about Blue Spring is what effective use it makes of its storytelling. In an interview on the disc, director Toyoda comments that he makes his films in a documentary style. Indeed, the above description seems to corroborate this statement: the story drifts from character to character, and, while things happen, they don't serve as plot points or devices that simply drive the story forward. Toyoda examines all of his characters and lets his audience get inside their heads. He makes us understand why these characters are so disillusioned and how this disillusionment leads them down various dead-end paths toward perceived escape or self-actualization. This choice of characterization over simple hierarchal posturing among the gang members is what makes the film so surprisingly effective. Its conclusion is sudden, bold, shocking, emotionally-shattering, and most definitely well-earned. I was surprised to find how much I cared about these characters by the film's end, and I was even more surprised that Toyoda had managed so deftly to sweep me into the film that I had not for a second noticed him broadening these personages in my mind. At the end I was shocked not only by the sudden, yet strangely inevitable twist of events, but I was powerfully moved by it as well. Do Monsters cry? A little bit, yes.

Still, even if all the artistic brilliance is put to the side for a moment, we are nevertheless left with a wonderful slice of Japanese cinema that is just tailor-made for the drooling fanboy. It's all here: the uber-cool slow-motion walking, the shocking (though tastefully off-camera) violence, etc. This is a school where almost everyone is cool as hell: even the tulip buds in the garden look hip with cigarettes. The music, by Japanese punk chart-toppers Thee Michelle Gun Elephant, is, appropriately, sublimely cool, and should send anyone who digs this kind of stuff rushing to the internet to find more of this fine group's work.

All in all, Blue Spring is both an artistic and aesthetic masterpiece that should please both art cinema fans and those simply looking for a cool good time. But how, you ask, is Artsmagic's release of this fine film?

Presentation-wise, we get Blue Spring in its 1.85:1 aspect ratio with anamorphic enhancement. The image is nice: clear, clean, and crisp; good color; etc. Audio, presented in a Japanese-language stereo track, is effective, with the occasional blasts of Thee Michelle Gun Elephant's guitar-thrashing ringing out wonderfully well. The optional English subtitles are clear and easy to read, though there are two instances where they run off the screen. Aside from this unfortunate occurrence, the disk is, technically, a bang-up job.

As for supplements, what we get, while more limited than on previous Artsmagic releases, is nevertheless good. Starting with the simplest stuff, we are given some nicely-written biographies and filmographies for the principal actors and for Toshiaki Toyoda himself, along with three pictures of the covers of upcoming Artsmagic releases (great news: they're for all three installments of Miike's Black Society Trilogy!).

Next up are two interviews with Toshiaki Toyoda, both of which run about 8 minutes long. In the first, Toyoda explains some of the background behind Blue Spring, talks about its genesis, discusses his philosophies about film, etc. The second interview has Toyoda discussing his first feature, Pornostar. It's a little confusing as to why this was included, since it really has nothing to do with Blue Spring, but it is interesting in its own right, so I suppose its inclusion isn't hurting anyone.

Wrapping up the disc is an invaluable commentary by Tom Mes, a quiet but extremely knowledgeable man who shares a wealth of great information: he explains the film as a reflection of Japanese society and culture, analyzes Toyoda's message, and even explains Japanese customs for all the confused Westerners out there (count me among them, I found these parts of the commentary invaluable). It's a great track that's well worth a listen whether you want to gain a deeper understanding of the film itself or you simply want to know why some of the characters are doing what they're doing.

No one makes movies about disaffected, angst-ridden teenagers like the Japanese do (no, not even Larry Clark), and, judging by the example I've just seen, few people make them quite as well as Toshiaki Toyoda. Blue Spring is an excellent film that's been given great treatment by Artsmagic. I promise you, this is one of the best cult DVD releases of the year so far, and it's definitely something that's not to be missed. Blue Spring will be available on July 27th. Swarm the stores.

US site: http://www.artsmagicdvd.com/bluespring