Review: 'Narratage' is a horrifying glamorisation of student-teacher relationships

It’s amazing how “Narratage” managed to get by censors with just a PG13 rating. Did they actually watch the film? Granted, it’s a hefty 140 minutes long, but it’s a troubling thought that they would award this film a mere PG13 rating, when the plot and subject matter are so disturbing.

The film starts innocently enough — Izumi Kudo (Kasumi Arimura) receives a call from her old high school teacher, Takashi Hayama (Jun Matsumoto), whom she had a crush on. The story eventually devolves into a tale that sickens you to the stomach.

While Hayama doesn’t do anything illegal to the underage Kudo in high school, what transpires seems inappropriate for audiences who may be too young to understand what’s happening. And since this is a romance, Kudo and Hayama’s love is shown to be an aspirational goal.

Perhaps if Hayama looked a little younger, or if he had not made any attempts on Kudo when she was in high school, the love story might still be acceptable. But he looks old enough to be Kudo’s father. Don’t be fooled by the movie poster, as his complexion has been edited to a glossy smoothness and that makes him look slightly more compatible with Kudo. However, in the film itself, he looks far older, and his complexion is a far cry from that in the poster.

In fact, all of the high school students look far too old to be in high school — this is even lampshaded in one scene. Not only that, Hayama has already been married once. Did nobody think his predatory actions were morally wrong and reprehensible? Nevertheless, female audiences in the cinema could be heard cooing whenever romantic scenes played out between Kudo and Hayama.

Let me be clear — my issue is with the fact that Hayama made advances on Kudo while she was in high school. Their age gap is another factor, but that can be overcome through skilful storytelling, which “Narratage” lacks. But the fact is that many students do have crushes on their teachers, and “Narratage” glorifies their forbidden love as something to be desired.

Of course, there is a token love rival, Ono (Kentaro Sakaguchi), who’s presented as a pleasant young man at first. However, he goes through a 180 degree change after getting together with Kudo, just so that the audience can see that Hayama is “right” for her. There’s no rhyme or reason for the degradation of his character, other than to present Hayama as the more desirable choice for Kudo.

The film also tries to convince you of the legitimacy of the love between Hayama and Kudo by comparing their relationship to those in Shakespearean tragedies. It’s a terrible, pretentious attempt to justify the morality of their love, and it’s absolutely unconvincing.

As if this melodrama isn’t enough, the last 15 minutes of the film descends into pointless soap opera style theatrics. You can only breathe a sigh of relief when it all ends and you can stop watching Kudo put on a pitiful, helpless look (her only expression throughout the film).

In terms of picture quality, the soft focus, overexposed shots attempt to romanticise the whole situation, but it just looks like a monkey was behind the camera. The shaky handheld camera is vomit-inducing too, if the story itself doesn’t make you throw up.

“Narratage” is a horrifying glamorisation of a relationship between a high school student and her teacher. In this time where powerful men are being called out for sexual abuse globally, this film should absolutely not have been made.

Should you watch this if it’s free? No.

Should you watch it at all? If you like this genre, yes.

Score: 1.5/5

Secret ending? No.

Running time: 140 minutes (~2.25 hours)

“Narratage” is a Japanese romantic drama that’s based on the book of the same name.

The film is directed by Isao Yukisada and written by Anne Horiizumi. It stars Jun Matsumoto (Takashi Hayama), Kasumi Arimura (Izumi Kudo), and Kentaro Sakaguchi (Reiji Ono). It is rated PG13.

“Narratage” opens in cinemas:
– 14 December, 2017 (Singapore)

Marcus Goh is a Singapore television scriptwriter, having written for “Lion Mums”, “Crimewatch”, “Incredible Tales”, and “Police & Thief”. He’s also a Transformers enthusiast and avid pop culture scholar. You can find him on social media as Optimarcus and on his site. The views expressed are his own.

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