MIT Lecture Series Committee

unrated
92 minutes

view trailer

format: DVCam

This World of Ours (2006)

One-time hikikomori (shut-in youth) Nakajima Ryo emerges from his self-imposed exile to offer a searing look at the suffocating pressures facing Japanese youth in the early years of the 21st Century. An episodic tale of bullying, adult hypocrisy, self-harm, suicide, and attempted homicide, Ryo's cathartic cinematic scream takes viewers on an emotionally intense journey into the lives of those who endure the injustices of contemporary society while drowning in a sea of adolescent nihilism. [www.allmovie.com]

Sponsored by MISTI (MIT Japan). In Japanese with English subtitles.

It�s a film that�s as impressive a debut as I could hope to experience, and contains so much to warrant praise that it�s worth remembering it�s not just an impressive project bourn of difficult circumstances due to the challenges of completing any such project, but one which simply shows there�s a higher level of ability here than can be developed within a filmmaker by course of tutoring, learning, or experience.
      -- logboy, Twitchfilm.net. Read this review.