The Beautiful Days (S)

This is Nakamura’s second film dealing with his own boyhood memories, based on Ken Katayama’s art book on the theme of childhood eroticism. The picture quality of 8mm film, the caressing feel of close-up shots, and handwritten subtitles exposing raw feeling portray the emotional landscape of adolescence on the screen. As an experimental work comprising still images, it has similarities to Nagisa Ōshima’s Band of Ninja. (Akihiro Suzuki)