Ao no honoo / The Blue Light (2003)
Last night I watched Ao no honoo (The Blue Light).
I still have confusing thoughts about this brilliant movie but now I am certain about one thing, for sure. Nino’s acting skills are to be bowed to.
***
Have you ever hated somebody so much that you wanted to kill them? Have you ever loved somebody so much that you were willing to give your life to protect them? Have you ever actually meant it and let these feelings overpower you?
Kushimori Shuichi had. And from the moment he lets his inner demons out, they keep haunting him.
The whole story revolves around 17-year-old Shuichi who lives peacefully with his mother and little sister until his stepfather suddenly comes back after a long absence and turns the life of this little family into living hell.
“All happy families are the same, every unhappy family is unhappy in their own way.” So true. Big tragedies are often set off by small insignificant things as it would seem from aside.
Nothing is that small here though. Neither Shuichi’s desire to live a normal life with his mother and stepsister, nor the hate for his stepfather, nor the inability to let his feelings out when he’s near the girl he likes.
We all have our shadow selves, the unknown “us”, sometimes fearful, sometimes fearless but nonetheless uncontrollable. The more you bottle your shadow up, the bigger is the chance that one day it will backfire, when you least expect it.
Domestic violence is the thing that always scared the hell out of me. So I totally understand why seeing the stepfather take advantage of his own daughter’s weakness sets Shuichi off.
But what really scared me though is the way the boy’s mind worked. He’s planning, he’s plotting, he uses his high-school knowledge and all kinds of reference books to commit a murder. But not a simple one, no, the natural-death-looking murder.
“Domestic electrocution for Dummies”, Shuichi would make a perfect author. It was probably the scariest j-movie moment I’ve seen so far. Who needs Ringu’s Sadako when you have Nino electrocuting people…
You cannot fully blame him for doing it. Seeing the ones you love suffer really is unbearable.
But once you slip, you can’t go back. Because taking another person’s life opens up a maelstrom that sucks you in. All things hidden come to light eventually, little by little destroying the lie that Shuichi hoped to keep to himself.
He lives in his personal shell. And the only person who sees him behind that mask is Noriko, the girl he’s attracted to but feels too shy to let her know.
She sees the true him and feels him.
Shuichi: “I, um… killed somebody.”
Noriko: “I understand.”
Isn’t it the most important thing to have somebody understand what you did and stand by your side no matter what, without even saying a word?
Shuichi leaves without saying a word either, to keep his loved ones safe. Did he succeed? I personally don’t want to think about it.
All that is left after him is his voice on a tape recorder that Shuichi gives to Noriko. These are thoughts that he kept hidden, the diary that he recorded, a fragile heart of a boy who loved so many things in this life.
I still have confusing thoughts about this brilliant movie but now I am certain about one thing, for sure. Nino’s acting skills are to be bowed to.
***
Have you ever hated somebody so much that you wanted to kill them? Have you ever loved somebody so much that you were willing to give your life to protect them? Have you ever actually meant it and let these feelings overpower you?
Kushimori Shuichi had. And from the moment he lets his inner demons out, they keep haunting him.
The whole story revolves around 17-year-old Shuichi who lives peacefully with his mother and little sister until his stepfather suddenly comes back after a long absence and turns the life of this little family into living hell.
“All happy families are the same, every unhappy family is unhappy in their own way.” So true. Big tragedies are often set off by small insignificant things as it would seem from aside.
Nothing is that small here though. Neither Shuichi’s desire to live a normal life with his mother and stepsister, nor the hate for his stepfather, nor the inability to let his feelings out when he’s near the girl he likes.
We all have our shadow selves, the unknown “us”, sometimes fearful, sometimes fearless but nonetheless uncontrollable. The more you bottle your shadow up, the bigger is the chance that one day it will backfire, when you least expect it.
Domestic violence is the thing that always scared the hell out of me. So I totally understand why seeing the stepfather take advantage of his own daughter’s weakness sets Shuichi off.
But what really scared me though is the way the boy’s mind worked. He’s planning, he’s plotting, he uses his high-school knowledge and all kinds of reference books to commit a murder. But not a simple one, no, the natural-death-looking murder.
“Domestic electrocution for Dummies”, Shuichi would make a perfect author. It was probably the scariest j-movie moment I’ve seen so far. Who needs Ringu’s Sadako when you have Nino electrocuting people…
You cannot fully blame him for doing it. Seeing the ones you love suffer really is unbearable.
But once you slip, you can’t go back. Because taking another person’s life opens up a maelstrom that sucks you in. All things hidden come to light eventually, little by little destroying the lie that Shuichi hoped to keep to himself.
He lives in his personal shell. And the only person who sees him behind that mask is Noriko, the girl he’s attracted to but feels too shy to let her know.
She sees the true him and feels him.
Shuichi: “I, um… killed somebody.”
Noriko: “I understand.”
Isn’t it the most important thing to have somebody understand what you did and stand by your side no matter what, without even saying a word?
Shuichi leaves without saying a word either, to keep his loved ones safe. Did he succeed? I personally don’t want to think about it.
All that is left after him is his voice on a tape recorder that Shuichi gives to Noriko. These are thoughts that he kept hidden, the diary that he recorded, a fragile heart of a boy who loved so many things in this life.