1999 - Nen no natsu yasumi (1988)

Summer vacation has emptied a Japanese boys' school of all but three boys: the junior Norio & the seniors Kazuhiko & Naoto. They have no families to return to for the summer, so they spend ... See full summary »

Director:

Shûsuke Kaneko

Writer:

Rio Kishida

Stars:

Eri Miyajima, Tomoko Ôtakara, Miyuki Nakano

2 wins & 2 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Eri Miyajima	...	Yu / Kaoru
Tomoko Ôtakara	...	Kazuhiko
Miyuki Nakano	...	Naoto
Eri Fukatsu	...	Norio
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Masaaki Maeda	...	Narration
Hiromi Murata	...	Naoto (voice)
Nozomu Sasaki	...	Kazuhiko (voice)
Minami Takayama	...	Kaoru (voice)

Storyline

Summer vacation has emptied a Japanese boys' school of all but three boys: the junior Norio & the seniors Kazuhiko & Naoto. They have no families to return to for the summer, so they spend their days in the empty school. A darkness hangs over the three however: the suicide, three months earlier, of classmate Yu. Norio blames Kazuhiko for Yu's death, because it was well-known that Yu loved Kazuhiko; so Kazuhiko is cruel to Norio, and yet has bad dreams. This uneasy arrangement is exacerbated by the arrival of Kaoru, a student early for the fall - who looks exactly like Yu.

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Plot Keywords:

school | summer | dream | student | death | 

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Taglines:

Boku o koroshitano wa, KIMI da!

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Genres:

Drama | Fantasy | Mystery | Romance

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Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

July 1989 (USA)

Also Known As:

Summer Vacation 1999

Filming Locations:

Kanda, Tokyo, Japan

Company Credits

Production Co:

CBS Sony Group Inc., New Century, Shibata Organisation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

90 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

All the boys in this film were played by girls.

User Reviews

all time favourite

this film is absolutely my personal favourite of all times.

the film sets itself in a vague time and place, it never tries to tell the audience where exactly the boarding school is; and although it says it's 1999, however it gives us a very timeless feeling when we see some strange looking computers in the classroom, what the 4 'boys' wear, and also the traditional look of the boarding school. we can never tell from the film itself unless we look at the title. this not only gives me more room for imagination but also let me get more focused on the attractive plot instead of diverting my attention to unecessary explanation of like why this school locates in this particular place, or why it got to be happening in the year 1999.

the 'boys' are living on their own with no adults around, and with no interference from the outside world. being young and fearless, they are allowed to act childish, to act in an innocent way, and need not care about how the outsiders think about them. this also avoids discussion on the supposed-to-be sensitive issue on gay relationships.

this is not a complete comment on the film, let the film speaks for itself. you will be fascinated. i know it's late to comment on this film after more then 10 years i've seen this movie, but i'm sure it's not too late as you will find it never out-of-date.

rated 10/10.