Typhoon Club

A work of elemental power, widely regarded as the key film of Somai’s career, Typhoon Club follows an ensemble of rural junior high students in the throes of a summery, adolescent malaise as a typhoon looms in the air. When the storm makes landfall, they find themselves holed up in their school unsupervised, while another classmate disappears alone on a harrowing trek to the big city. Set adrift in a world unmoored, and abandoned by useless adults—part apocalypse, part utopia—the students let loose their pent-up angst and desires in a series of propulsive and nearly phantasmic scenes as the deluge rages on into the night. Observed in daring long takes, Somai gives material form to the students’ turbulent inner lives, a veritable danse macabre of primal action and raw physicality. When day breaks and the rains let up, the youngsters open their eyes to a world in ruins—or a world renewed. The 12th best Japanese film of all time, according to Japan’s authoritative Kinema Junpo poll.