"CLOSE", a transitional period when a boy becomes a young man

Ah, it was a truly heart-wrenching and beautiful movie. It's a highly abstract piece of work, but I think people who remember it from when they were teenagers will find it intuitive. This is the story of a 13-year-old boy. Keiko Takemiya drew an illustration for the release of "CLOSE" (22), and the two leads, Eden Damblin as Leo and Gustav de Wael as Remi, are incredibly beautiful. . In particular, at first (I went to the screening with no prior knowledge), I mistakenly thought that Leo was a very short girl. As the title suggests, the two are close friends. always together. It's stuck together. They are attracted to each other.

Roughly speaking, it's a story about two boys who are close friends and how they get along with each other. I won't say any more because it would be a spoiler. It all started when a girl in my class teased me at school, saying, ``Aren't you in love?'' I think the girls were of course making fun of him lightly (I didn't really suspect him of homosexuality), but it had a decisive destructive power. A rift appears between the two best friends.

I think that ``Claus'' has a common theme with director Hirokazu Kore-eda's `` Monster ,'' but instead of taking an approach that emphasizes sociality like ``Monster,'' it is more of a literary/fantasy approach. That's spot on. The film captures the fleeting but irreversible events that shaped a young boy's heart. You could interpret it as BL (or at least the beginnings of it) as a theme, and considering the two handsome young men in the lead roles, the movie might be a better hit that way. However, I think it's more sad to say that it hasn't even become a BL yet.

What do you mean by "it's not even BL yet"? It is undifferentiated. Well, Leo and Remi are both boys, but they're in the transition period where boys become young adults. It's very cramped. People often say things like, ``When I was a child, I was free to do whatever I wanted,'' but please try to remember that. Wasn't it cramped? My range of consciousness is narrow, I feel embarrassed, and I can't do what I want to do. I don't even know how to do it. I don't even know what I really want to do. I was saved when I became an adult. Adults should be able to decide for themselves. You can go anywhere and do anything with the money you work for.

So, when I was a teenager, it was basically difficult. Although my mind remains a child's, my body changes. Look, there's a story about werewolves, right? On the night of a full moon, his body hair grows thickly, fangs grow, and he transforms into a wolf. I think that's a fear that all adolescent boys experience in common. I am frightened by the sexual energy that is stirring within me. My body hair starts to grow and I feel like I'm turning into something ferocious.

“CLOSE” © Menuet / Diaphana Films / Topkapi Films / Versus Production 2022

Ah, I feel like I've strayed a bit from the undifferentiated story. Undifferentiated is a state like ``I'm a man but not yet a man'' or ``I'm a woman but not yet a woman.'' However, I think it is different from LGBTQ. I kept changing schools throughout my compulsory education period, but no matter where I moved, I became friends with some strange kids who I got along with and would hang out with me.

It happens sometimes. A unique child. Sometimes it's boys and sometimes it's girls. I really like it. We chat every day, being lazy every day. But it doesn't feel like friendship, and it's not love. I think it has a similar meaning to ``nostalgia.''

This is a true story, but when I met someone for the first time in several years, I was disappointed to find that he had changed completely. At that time, we went to junior high school and went to different schools, and we hadn't seen each other in a long time, but the girls we were good friends with started to look like ``so-called girls.'' I thought about it later, but I think I learned social skills. I think I started something like ``me for others''. For girls, ``self for others'' tends to become ``self through a man's perspective,'' and when that happens, their appearance becomes more and more sophisticated, but it becomes boring. I think that undifferentiated state of being neither male nor female was interesting. It was so unique and interesting. He was a genius.

Maybe that was the case for both of us, and it might have been the same from the other side. When I became a junior high school student, I was frightened by the changes in my body and my sexual energy, and I think I lost the carefree childhood I had as a child. I think we've lost and forgotten the era of Claus, the era of ``getting attached'' to a fun and beloved child.

Also, I think I should mention this, but there is an ice hockey scene in this work. After being teased by a girl in his class, Leo's decision to join the ice hockey club is treated as a trigger for him to distance himself from Remi. Well, I guess it's something like ``Ice hockey = martial arts on ice = a symbol of masculinity.'' I think it's like Leo trying to appeal to the class by saying, ``I'm not homosexual.''

“CLOSE” © Menuet / Diaphana Films / Topkapi Films / Versus Production 2022

So, the ice hockey in the story was quite accurate. There are several scenes on the ice, but you can clearly see the training content, and Leo is playing well. Oh, there's a part where Leo practices back skating, and if you look at it, you can tell that Leo's position is DF (defense). Then, he later played properly as a defender.

Ah, sorry I'm late, but I'm a former director of the Nikko Ice Bucks, a professional ice hockey team in the Asia League. Even if it's not a straight-up hockey movie like `` Slap Shot '' (1977) or ``The Flightless Duck '' (1992), for example, if you find an ice hockey scene in `` A Poem of Love '' (1970), Checking out the playing skills of Ryan O'Neal (Oliver of Harvard's ice hockey team) is a no-brainer. ``CLOSE'' was a proper movie about the hockey scene.

Text: Ichiro Enoki

Born in 1959. Born in Akita Prefecture. Debuted in a commercial magazine with ``Takarajima'' in 1980 while studying at Chuo University. Since then, he has serialized columns and essays in various magazines, and continues to this day. Also active on radio and television. Twitter @ichiroenokido

Reserve “CLOSE” now ↓

"CLOSE"

Nationwide release from July 14th (Friday)

Distribution: Klockworx/STAR CHANNEL MOVIES

© Menuet / Diaphana Films / Topkapi Films / Versus Production 2022