The asthmatic youth Hikaru is continually pestered by his lifelong friend Sadato. Hikaru likes looking at the miniature city he has lowered into his aquarium and dreams of a great tidal wave as referred to in the bible. One day Sadato teases him again and Hikaru end up with a head injury. He wakes up in hospital. At that moment he starts to discover he has supernatural powers. As a result his life starts changing, eventually leading to a new, real friendship with others and with himself.The film portrays the life of these youths in a neo-realistic style and is dedicated to ‘youth at the end of this century’. Atsushi himself says: ‘The protagonists in this film are drop-outs who cannot keep up with rapid progress and find themselves in a nihilistic world. You find a lot of people like that in Asia. It would be good if the viewer could feel the “vulnerability and impudence of existence”.’The film portrays the youths in a visually-impressive way. In total shots which are often stunning (maybe the most beautiful of Japanese cinema since Himatsuri) we see the two youths make life difficult for each other in the foreground, while in the background against a bright blue sky the traffic races on stoically as a taut line.
