Nostalgia Kinky

As I was watching, or should I say experiencing, the new Cult Epics’ Blu-ray for Nobuhiko Obayashi’s wonderful 1981 film ねらわれた学園 (School in the Crosshairs) I was taken back to my own youth. Specifically, the film made me recall a time in my early twenties in nineties Lexington, KY visiting a local video shop in town that carried copies of Asian Trash Cinema, the great fanzine/magazine put out by man Craig Ledbetter and Tom Weisser back in the day. I used to flip through the pages of that great mag just marveling at the type of cinema that had been happening throughout my youth, film I wasn’t aware of. It looked like a very different world and it was always so exciting to wander into the basement video section on the local legend Cut Corner to find grey market VHS dubs of some of the film. It was a special time. It was my youth.

In his commentary track for Cult Epics’ new Blu-ray special edition of School in the Crosshairs, Obayashi biographer Max Robinson mentions how much sympathy and care the great director has for the young. I respond to this so much and with each Obayashi film I catch up with I marvel at how he is able to capture the strange magic that only youth can bring. School in the Crosshairs is a miraculous film celebrating the alchemic power of the young and it might be my favorite film from the great Japanese director so far. This is a wild, chaotic work that is ever moving. In fact I can’t think of a film I’ve seen in recent memory that celebrates movement as much as this one does. With every scene, Obayashi presents something special and unexpected, as though he is celebrating the very idea of FREEDOM in the way that only young people dream of. School in the Crosshairs is an astounding achievement, dizzying and delightfully feeling as though it is constantly on the verge of falling apart. Why oh why, can’t American films about kids be this entertaining, surreal and downright magical?

Compared to House (1977) and His Motorbike Her Island (1986), School in the Crosshairs is a much more fractured even flawed work as it really does slip completely out of control in its final half hour. But its the film’s imperfections that perhaps has caused me to love it more than the others. Obayashi really goes for it here, creating a film that is beyond distinctive, beyond the realms of what should be possible. School in the Crosshairs is a real kaleidoscopic mind-fuck and I adored every colorful frame of it.

Starring Hiroko Yakushimaru, in a real charismatic star turn, the telekinetic School in the Crosshairs has elements of Carrie and The Fury for sure but it is wholly distinctive and impossible to accurately describe. You know all that souless AI slop clogging up our video platforms featuring imagery we’ve never seen. Well take a look at how much soul surreal images have when an actual artist is creating them. Obayashi’s imagination is astounding, as his ability to bring his strangest visions to life. His work is so incredibly liberating to watch…like getting to live inside the type of dream that fades upon waking.

Featuring the dreamy photography of DP Yoshitaka Sakamoto and the delightfully unpredictable cutting skills of editor Kazuo Satsuya, School in the Crosshairs feels utterly and wholly unique throughout its runtime. Robinson mentions in his commentary that in a way School in the Crosshairs was the most connected follow-up to House Obayashi came up with and, yeah, I can totally see that. This is a real vibrant and powerful work of surrealism. House even makes an appearance in the film for any viewers on the lookout.

The first hour of School in the Crosshairs is absolute perfection and is one of the best high school set kids films I’ve ever seen. The final section of the film is absolute CHAOS as Obayashi lets it run wild. I admired this loss of control in the film’s final sections. It is as if Obayashi is allowing his work to have its own way, as though he is allowing it to escape the very hands that created it. It’s not as perfect as House nor as moving as His Motorbike Her Island but there is something about School in the Crosshairs that set my autistic ass alight. This film really spoke to me and Christ, I wish I had went to this high school.

Cult Epics has another exceptional release on their hands with this new special edition of School in the Crosshairs. Mastered from a 2K scan the film looks and sounds incredible, with the colors and score really popping serving Obayashi’s visionary strangeness exceedingly well. Extras include a delightful reproduction of the promotional booklet, the commentary track, trailers and another great video essay by Phillip Jeffries. I really dig the slipcover art by Sam Smith and really appreciate how Cult Epics continues to offer up a double-sided cover both unique from the slip (so you get three various options). More information on ordering and the disc can be found here.

School in the Crosshairs is yet another great cinematic discovering I’ve made this year. I notice all my favorites have something in common…they all celebrate personal freedom and liberation. I can’t think of two more important things for our current now. With this film, Obayashi gave me a ticket back through my own memories and dreams and admired School in the Crosshairs so very, very much. What a special film this is.

-Jeremy Richey, September 2025-