Based on a novel by Ikki Kajiwara and Hisao Maki, Takashi Miike's 2006 surreal arthouse thriller Big Bang Love, Juvenile A is set in an unspecified future time. Two young male prisoners - Ariyoshi (Ryuhei Matsuda) and Kizuki (Masanobu Ando) - wind up imprisoned in a strange jail where they develop a rather intense relationship. When one of the prisoners winds up dead, an investigation begins in an attempt to figure out who the murderer really was, but what takes place in the physical plain seems to have little effect on what happens to the two young men on the spiritual plain.

Describing Big Bang Love in any more detail than that would be a disservice to anyone interested in seeing the picture who hasn't already had a chance to do so. While it's not easy to agree with the quote from Miike on the cover of the release claiming that this film is his masterpiece, there's no denying that this is indeed a very, very well made picture that deals with some rather unorthodox and at times fairly impenetrable subject matter.

Like many of the director's films, Big Bang Love deals with the preconceived notions of masculinity, of what it means to 'be a man' and with the difficulties and nobility of loyalty. This time around, as he did with Gozu, he also delves into matters of the spiritual and, not for the first time, dabbles with homoerotic imagery and overtones. The narrative jumps around a lot, just like it did in Izo, and the movie definitely slaps us with some 'weird for the sake of weird' moments but underneath the philosophical musings and bizarre (and often phallic) imagery is a decent murder mystery with some clever black comedy and few interesting twists.

Taking place primarily on some fairly minimalist (though very well lit) sets, the movie often feels like it was adapted from a stage play. The prison is made up of some architecturally absurd designs and the colors, leaning more towards yellow than anything else, paint the whole production in a rather alien light. This gives the picture a very unorthodox but extremely theatrical look and tone that works very much in its favor to creating a seedy, hostile and completely bizarre environment for the events that make up the plot to take place.

Performances are strong across the board with Matsuda and Ando obviously stealing the show with their melancholy but somehow rather tender portrayals. Miike regular Ryo Ishibashi is fun as the warden, a small but important part, and Shunsuke Kobuzuka is quite good in his supporting role as fellow prisoner, Sumio.

At just over eighty minutes in length the film doesn't over stay it's welcome, rather it winds up on a fairly poignant note, reminding us that this is as much a love story (albeit a very unconventional one) as it is anything else. There's definitely heart to the picture, and thankfully there's some substance to go along with the style even if you have to look harder than usual to see it.

Video:

Big Bang Love, Juvenile A looks excellent in the 1.85.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer on this DVD (the image is slightly windowboxed on the left and right). Color reproduction is great and the black levels are strong throughout. Fine detail looks nice in both the foreground and the background and even during the darker moments, you can see everything you're supposed to see. There's a bit of fine grain present but no major problems with print damage. Mpeg compression is non-existent and there are no problems with heavy aliasing or edge enhancement to complain about.