During the fervently nationalist months leading up to World War II, a rebellious teenager is transferred to a new primary school in a small Inland Sea town. He vies with the school’s reigning bully, who takes a romantic interest in his older stepsister. When they learn she’s going to be sold to a brothel to pay off her father’s debts, they form an uneasy alliance to free her. With surprising moments of caricature and slapstick, Obayashi celebrates the anarchic world of adolescence while also satirizing adult hypocrisy and conformism.

Movie rating: 6.9 / 10 (172)

Directed by: Nobuhiko Ohbayashi - Haruo Sato - Shinobu Yamada

Writer credits: Haruo Satoh - Shinobu Yamada

Cast: Saburoh Bouya - Sen Hara - Yasufumi Hayashi - Wakaba Irie - Guts Ishimatsu

AKA: To the Fields, to the Hills, to the Beaches

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