Film
What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases
Boy's Choir (1999)
Director: Akira Ogata
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
The early 1970s. Shy and stuttering, Michio (Ito) is sent to a Catholic orphanage when his father dies and there befriends Yasuo (Toma), a boy soprano who draws him into the school choir. These volatile kids are pulled into political activism by a fateful encounter with the ex-lover of their choirmaster, a woman on the run from the police. There's something endearingly barmy about a project to trace the roots of an entire generation back to the '70s crazes for the Vienna Boys' Choir and leftie nihilism, and first-time director Ogata almost makes his thesis stick. But he's helped more by strong and committed performances from the two leads than by the script, which lurches from cliché (will his voice break before the concert?) to crude shock effects (severed limbs from a suicide bomber rain down).Author: TR
Cast & crew
Director: Akira Ogata
Producer: Takenori Sento
Cast: Atsushi Ito, Sora Toma, Tarayuki Kagawa, Ryoko Takizawa, Ken Mitsuishi, Kihachi Okamoto full cast
Duration: 130 mins
Most popular on this site
Top Stories
Time Out's 101 Films of the Decade
Ten years, thousands of movies and millions of dollars in international box office, and it all boils down to this
Martin Provost discusses 'Séraphine'
Trevor Johnston talks to the director of 'Séraphine' about bringing a little known French painter back to life
Our verdict on Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones
Peter Jackson ends a triumphant decade with a sentimental misfire with this lush Alice Sebold adaptation
On the set of Ken Loach's 'Route Irish'
Dave Calhoun meets Ken Loach on the set of his forthcoming Iraq war movie
Stephen Poliakoff discusses 'Glorious 39'
Stephen Poliakoff’s ‘Glorious 39’ is his first film for cinema since ‘Food of Love’ in 1997. Dave Calhoun met him
Is 'Paranormal Activity' the new 'Blair Witch'?
How does a film go from DIY experiment to box-office smash? 'Paranormal Activity' director Oren Peli explains
Steven Soderbergh on 'The Informant!' and 'The Girlfriend Experience'
We talk to Steven Soderbergh about his two forthcoming films: one featuring a porn star, the other a chubby Matt Damon
A gateway to all things 'New Moon'
In anticipation of 'The Twilight Saga: New Moon', Time Out is offering the chance to pick up a limited edition pack with three exclusive magazines and a free poster.
The films that deserve a TV spin-off
With Roland Emmerich suggesting he'd like to make a '2012' TV spin-off, we propose some more movie-to-TV serialisations
Time Out's 50 greatest animated films with commentary by Terry Gilliam
In celebration of the release of Pixar's 'Up' and Wes Anderson's 'Fantastic Mr Fox', read our rundown of fifty classic feature length animations












What do you think?
Post your review now