Before jumping into the story itself, I have to say I was blown away by the imagery and sound of this movie. The scenarios are, at the same time, breathtakingly beautiful and deeply dark, to a point of making you uncomfortable. The old, rusty lamps that mark the ways trough the woods are an important detail in the creation of the dark ambiance. The soundtrack is in no way inferior, and as others said, strongly inspired by David Lynch work.
All this translates into one of the main points of this movie, which is showing on the big screen the contradictions of kids lives at that age. The girls are told to be happy, and they spend a lot of time playing outside, on the woods and the lake. On the other hand, they are subject to a demanding education (which is depicted in the movie as ballet lessons), which is many times scary, dull, and somewhat pointless.
One of the interesting lines of the story if the fact that the only purpose of being in the school seems to be getting out of there. There is no clear goal, and girls seem to don't deeply understand why are they there (Iris asks several times if and when can she leave and there's never a clear answer to her question). At a point, one of the young girls asks an older one if the reason for one of the teachers having a physical problem on her legs is the result of punishment for trying to leave the school. I love this dialog, because it shows two different characteristics of the young kids: the uncertainty related to why they must be there and when will they be able to leave, and the weird and somewhat surreal stories and fears the young minds are able to create.
The movie also shows us that all this is scary enough to the point that some kids can't handle it. There are two very sad situations in the story. The first is when the lonely, scared and violent girl shows us she's so afraid of the challenges she faces that she ends up getting out of the school the only way she can: by drowning herself on the lake. I believe this tries to map the few kids we all knew in our schools that started being subject of bad influences, having a violent behavior, taking drugs, and tearing their life apart to a point of no return.
The second situation is the girl that fails to be chosen. First of all, it's never really clear what it means to be chosen. What seems obvious is that, whatever it means, it's not something that is necessarily or entirely good. My interpretation is being chosen means going to a more demanding school. It may be good because more difficult challenges keep those kids interested, but it may also backfire, crushing the kids under extreme pressure from teachers and parents. Anyway, this girl really wants to be the one, and she even tries to have extra ballet classes so she can practice more than the others. When she faces the fact that other girl is chosen, she collapses, enters an weird depressed, almost catatonic state, and a few days later, she runs away from school and she's never seen again. Maybe she went to look for a place where her talent is acknowledged, or maybe she just snapped and tried to run away from the fact she's not the best student. We don't know, but it's very easy to map this to some unfortunate and real situations where kids collapse under the pressure, specially in demanding societies like Japan.
Unlike other reviewers, I don't find this movie to be inappropriate in what relates to the young girl's nudity. This being said, there's one sex-related scene that I believe it's the only one in the movie that is meant to be, which is the glove one. One day before leaving the school, Bianca finds a (velvet?) glove in the theater, that comes from the "adult" world (it belongs to an adult that left the glove behind on her seat). She keeps the glove, and a few moments later we see her using it and feeling the glove's fabric on her legs. I believe this scene marks the end of the innocence, and depicts Bianca starting to get curious about her own sexuality, which is something that usually starts to happen at about her age. I love the metaphor of her hand not being the hand of a child any more, but an adult one, symbolized by the glove. I believe the glove sequence is a master piece by itself, considering how beautifully and non-graphically the issue was handled, and of course, how tricky shooting a scene like this can be in a way that won't shock the audience.
Also, I think the last scenes are very strong and important. First, it's deeply touching to see the contradictory feelings on the teacher's faces when saying goodbye to the girls for the last time. I remember this from my time as a kid, when we ended the 4th grade and switched schools. Teachers are proud and happy to have helped the young girls be ready for the next stage of their lives, and at the same time almost crying because they know that in a few months the girls have moved on and forgot about them forever. It's also important to see the new school, that looks more like a modern office park, with a lot of light (the dark days are over), happy boys and girls playing, water fountains, and no walls or limits. It's a new life for those girls. They moved on from their protected, walled and seemingly pointless environment to the open, real world, where they'll be free to make their own decisions, meet new friends (including boys) and go on with their lives.
All this translates into one of the main points of this movie, which is showing on the big screen the contradictions of kids lives at that age. The girls are told to be happy, and they spend a lot of time playing outside, on the woods and the lake. On the other hand, they are subject to a demanding education (which is depicted in the movie as ballet lessons), which is many times scary, dull, and somewhat pointless.
One of the interesting lines of the story if the fact that the only purpose of being in the school seems to be getting out of there. There is no clear goal, and girls seem to don't deeply understand why are they there (Iris asks several times if and when can she leave and there's never a clear answer to her question). At a point, one of the young girls asks an older one if the reason for one of the teachers having a physical problem on her legs is the result of punishment for trying to leave the school. I love this dialog, because it shows two different characteristics of the young kids: the uncertainty related to why they must be there and when will they be able to leave, and the weird and somewhat surreal stories and fears the young minds are able to create.
The movie also shows us that all this is scary enough to the point that some kids can't handle it. There are two very sad situations in the story. The first is when the lonely, scared and violent girl shows us she's so afraid of the challenges she faces that she ends up getting out of the school the only way she can: by drowning herself on the lake. I believe this tries to map the few kids we all knew in our schools that started being subject of bad influences, having a violent behavior, taking drugs, and tearing their life apart to a point of no return.
The second situation is the girl that fails to be chosen. First of all, it's never really clear what it means to be chosen. What seems obvious is that, whatever it means, it's not something that is necessarily or entirely good. My interpretation is being chosen means going to a more demanding school. It may be good because more difficult challenges keep those kids interested, but it may also backfire, crushing the kids under extreme pressure from teachers and parents. Anyway, this girl really wants to be the one, and she even tries to have extra ballet classes so she can practice more than the others. When she faces the fact that other girl is chosen, she collapses, enters an weird depressed, almost catatonic state, and a few days later, she runs away from school and she's never seen again. Maybe she went to look for a place where her talent is acknowledged, or maybe she just snapped and tried to run away from the fact she's not the best student. We don't know, but it's very easy to map this to some unfortunate and real situations where kids collapse under the pressure, specially in demanding societies like Japan.
Unlike other reviewers, I don't find this movie to be inappropriate in what relates to the young girl's nudity. This being said, there's one sex-related scene that I believe it's the only one in the movie that is meant to be, which is the glove one. One day before leaving the school, Bianca finds a (velvet?) glove in the theater, that comes from the "adult" world (it belongs to an adult that left the glove behind on her seat). She keeps the glove, and a few moments later we see her using it and feeling the glove's fabric on her legs. I believe this scene marks the end of the innocence, and depicts Bianca starting to get curious about her own sexuality, which is something that usually starts to happen at about her age. I love the metaphor of her hand not being the hand of a child any more, but an adult one, symbolized by the glove. I believe the glove sequence is a master piece by itself, considering how beautifully and non-graphically the issue was handled, and of course, how tricky shooting a scene like this can be in a way that won't shock the audience.
Also, I think the last scenes are very strong and important. First, it's deeply touching to see the contradictory feelings on the teacher's faces when saying goodbye to the girls for the last time. I remember this from my time as a kid, when we ended the 4th grade and switched schools. Teachers are proud and happy to have helped the young girls be ready for the next stage of their lives, and at the same time almost crying because they know that in a few months the girls have moved on and forgot about them forever. It's also important to see the new school, that looks more like a modern office park, with a lot of light (the dark days are over), happy boys and girls playing, water fountains, and no walls or limits. It's a new life for those girls. They moved on from their protected, walled and seemingly pointless environment to the open, real world, where they'll be free to make their own decisions, meet new friends (including boys) and go on with their lives.