ReviewEternally Younger Than Those Idiots movie review: Japanese coming-of-age drama finds humour and tragedy in a young woman’s anxiety about still being a virgin
- A college senior wrestling with self-doubt meets a quiet, quirky fellow student and their tender relationship helps bolster an occasionally uneven drama
- Narrative missteps aside, Eternally Younger Than Those Idiots paints an intimate portrait of a defining moment of transition in the lives of young adults
3.5/5 stars
For many university students, graduation is a time for celebration. For some, taking their first tentative steps into the adult world can also be a period of overwhelming anxiety and self-doubt.
In Eternally Younger Than Those Idiots, Ryohei Yoshino’s sensitive adaptation of Kikuko Tsumura’s award-winning novel, college senior Horigai (Yui Sakuma) is wrestling with precisely these fears when she meets the quiet and withdrawn Inogi (Nao). Their tender and sympathetic relationship helps bolster Yoshino’s occasionally uneven drama, which oscillates between gentle humour and existential tragedy.
Before the school year is even over, Horigai has secured herself a job as a child welfare officer, something she has always wanted but now fears she is woefully ill-equipped for. Awkward, outspoken and frustrated that she is destined to graduate before losing her virginity, she feels incapable of making meaningful connections with those around her.
She meets a boy, Homine (Sho Kasamatsu), and the pair click immediately, but before she can see him again he is killed in an accident. She also crosses paths with Inogi, a junior whose reserved demeanour hides a quirky sense of humour much like Horigai’s. The two young women become close, until traumatic secrets from the past threaten to derail their friendship too.