An elaborate story about a sad, fierce, but beautiful love between two teenagers…
Based on a manga by Taku Tsumugi serialized in 1986 and ’87, Hot Road is a very beautiful coming of age film about teenage love and delinquents.
14-year-old Kazuki has family troubles. Her mother married her father against her will, but retained, throughout her marriage, her relationship with her true love, Suzuki, who is also married. Now that her husband is gone, she has devoted herself to Suzuki, neglecting Kazuki, who thinks her mother wants nothing to do with her. This leads her to get into trouble frequently, shoplifting and hanging out without total strangers. However, during one of her “adventures” with her friend Eri, she meets 16-year-old Haruyama, the second in command of a motorcycle gang named Nights. The two of them embark on a passionate, romantic relationship, which amongst much drama, ends up in disillusionment about their lives.
Takahiro Miki (Blue Spring Ride, Solanin) directs in the usual slow and melancholic pace of Japanese dramas, as seen in the films of Hirokazu Koreeda and Kiyoshi Kurosawa, among others. However, this does not mean that the film is lagging. To the contrary, the march of events is continuous, and Miki retains a rhythm that will not disappoint even the fans of action films. His visage towards the teenagers is very soft and sensitive, elaborately portraying their thoughts and feelings, and almost absolutely justifying their acts, even the crazy ones that result from their age and their environment. Overall, the general aesthetics of the movie have a definite female approach, as the original falls under the shoujo (aimed at girls) category and both Miki and Tomoko Yoshida, who wrote the script, stayed very close to it.
The film benefits the most from the protagonist’s performance. Rena Nounen (Princess Jellyfish, G’mor Evian!) as Kazuki initially seems like an unjustifiably rebellious and frustrated teenage girl that can even become violent at times. As the film progresses though, her sweet and sensitive side appears, as she falls in love with Hiroshi, played by Hiroomi Tosaka. He, on the other hand, is a true “rebel without a cause” bound by the codes of honor of his gang and his sense of duty towards the other members. He portrays a straightforward young man, who seems to have no discrepancies in his character. Nevertheless, when Kazuki enters his life, a whole other world opens in front him as he begins to change and evolve, even without his direct acknowledgement of the fact. The portrayal of their evolution as characters is magnificent and their roles’ biggest achievement. In that fashion, the awards they received from the Japanese Academy and other competitions as newcomers were absolutely justified.
Another point of excellence is the magnificent cinematography by Yamada Tosuke, who draws from the seaside environment to portray astonishing shots of the city, washed in every shade of white. Both the ones where the protagonists are standing and the ones they are on the bike are of equal artfulness. The slow and mellow music also heightens the melancholic feeling that permeates the film.
Hot Road is a very beautiful film, which, despite clearly addressing teenage girls, will satisfy almost every demographic with its general artfulness.