Gets better after every viewing
It honestly does. I initially liked the film at first (would have rated it a 7 or 8) but I found some of the musical interludes, however cool, gratuitious and overlong. I commended it for its grit, complete absence of sentimentality and striking art work. And that was that.
But one day I was bored and decided to give it another whirl, and I have to say, it's since become one of my favourite films. The second time around I took notice of the recurring motifs and sybols such as that of the looming shadow whose significance cannot be overstated enough, the ghost student whisking past the other pupils (brilliant metaphor for their plight), the dwarf and the cherry blossoms, the significance of the clapping game, the school's strange castle-like isolation, the school itself regarded as an entity of its own, the graceful yet pungent soundtrack of Thee Michelle Gun Elephant, the incredible sense of emptiness and hopelessness in every character, and the semi-legendary time-lapse shot...and it all made sense in my head! It's something that I could relate to very well (except with more poverty and violence in my case believe it or not). The destructive power of this film... yet it's not a movie that pulls its punches or gives in to easy sentimentality. It earns every response it gets out of the viewer and rewards them upon each viewing. I'm telling you this movie made me cry like a sissy (and I'm really not a sissy!). I also liked its steel blue sub-90s post-Nirvana feel, it struck me as genuine and not *beep* at all. It reeked of silent despair and brought back some not so fond memories of my youth. Thanks Blue Spring! At any rate, it was much more convincing then some of the stupid whiny angsty teen films like Thirteen out there.
It's just so meticulously crafted, every scene had a purpose, and what an incredible ending...A masterpiece in every sense of the word, deserves some sort of accolade. I've now seen it more than 5 times and plan to become a filmmaker in the same vein as Toshiaki Toyoda because of this film. I doubt I'll be as successful, but stories like these rarely get made with as much vision and grit as Blue Spring. So who's up for Blue Spring 2?! (joke)