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It's summer, and like very year, only a handful of students stay behind
at their boarding school: Kazuhiko (Tomoko Otakara), Naoto (Miyuki Nakano)
and Norio (Eri Fukatsu). This year though, the boys are feeling down,
because a few months back, one of their friends, Yu (Eri Miyajima), has
disappeared, and the others blame Kazuhiko for killing him because Yu
vanished right after he had confessed his love to Kazuhiko, who rejected
him. It might have been murder or suicide though, nobody knows because Yu's body
has never been found. Enter new student Kaoru, the splitting image of Yu
(and therefore also played by Eri Miyajima), who doesn't only mess up the
other boys' daily routines, he also makes Kazuhiko fall in love with him -
much to the dismay of Naoto, who in turn is in love with Kazuhiko. But
Naoto of course doesn't have a chance, especially when Kaoru needs
Kazuhiko to comfort him after his mother has died ... First and foremost
out of jealousy, Naoto does a bit of investigating, and he soon finds out
that Kaoru is indeed Yu. Naoto confronts Kaoru with this and tries to
convince him to commit suicide, but Kaoru is saved by Kazuhiko - which
leads to a showdown between Kazuhiko and Yu, as Yu claims he has only come
back to make Kazuhiko fall in love with him, to reject him and have his
revenge that way - and the only way that Yu could ever forgive Kazuhiko is
to commit suicide together. The two boys jump off a cliff to their
deaths, but Kazuhiko is saved ... only his heart is broken, just like that
of everyone else. A film about homosexuality in a boarding
school with all male characters (there are only four in the whole film, no
supporting characters or even extras) played by girls - now that sounds
like an interesting concept at least ... and primarily, Summer Vacation
1999 is just that, interesting. It does feature an engaging plot,
several well-composed images, and the girls handle their male roles rather
well - but on the other hand, the film also drags along a bit too much,
does seem a lot longer than its 90 minutes of running time, and as a
result does after a while lose its steam, especially in the second half,
when it's supposed to build up to the climax. On top of that, the
aethetics of the film betray an intent to look tasteful rather than
carrying any personal note. Still, the film is interesting, not great, but
interesting at least.
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find Summer Vacation 1999 at adultvideouniverse.com
