A soccer ball solves racism? This chaotic Japanese-Korean high school brawl says 'hold my soju.'
Romeo, A.K.A. Kosuke Matsuyama, is a second-year high school student. A nice, normal, nonviolent type, he suddenly finds himself in the middle of a rampaging crowd of Korean boys, outraged by insults perpetrated by several of his idiotic class-mates on two Korean girls. He makes a narrow escape, but soon after, he and his best bud Yoshio are sent by their home-room teacher to invite the Korean students to a friendly soccer game as a way of restoring the peace.
Acting
Shun Shioya's deer-in-headlights everyman anchors the chaos perfectly.
Direction
Izutsu shoots fight scenes like music videos—messy, loud, weirdly beautiful.
Writing
Slurs become jokes become gut-punches; the tonal whiplash is deliberate.
Director
Kazuyuki Izutsu
Shun Shioya
Kousuke Matsuyama
Erika Sawajiri
Kyung-ja Lee
Sousuke Takaoka
An-sung Lee
Hiroyuki Onoue
Jae-dok Park
Yoko Maki
Gang-ja Chun
Joe Odagiri
Sakazaki
Keisuke Koide
Norio Yoshida
Kazuki Namioka
Bang-ho Motoki
Ryo Kase
Hideto Noguchi
Ken Mitsuishi
Fukawa Sensei
Yōsuke Asari
Noriko Eguchi
Houka Kinoshita
Shoka Oshima
Yoko Maki
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
JP
