Institute History
Description
As high-school friends, Kita Shiro and Tamura Keita made a Super-8 movie called The First Base about a group of kids playing baseball. They don't have enough players, so they invent an invisible person who can "hold" a base when its player bats. This invisible man somehow comes to represent their dreams of escape from small-town realities.
Keita, whose father is a doctor, thinks seriously about going to medical school, but Shiro is determined not to lose sight of their high-school dreams. After attempting to run away, Keita suddenly agrees to join Shiro in making a new Super-8 movie. But the filming goes terri-bly wrong, and Keita ends up uncon-scious after falling from a balcony. Shiro decides that this is their last chance to "escape," so he digs out the costume he wore as the "invisible runner" in The First Base and heads for the hospital . . Comment: This film goes beyond nostalgia to something truly anarchic. It manages to be poetic and cool at the same time. That central paradox makes much of it unforgettable; I find myself haunted by particular scenes and shots. It proves yet again that the most memorable films deal with things that cannot be expressed in words.