Gen Takahashi's Goth is a film we've been keeping an eye on since first hearing about it a few months back for a few reasons.
First, it's the film adaptation of a very popular novel by a writer known simply as Otsuichi.
Second, it's a prime example of the sort of youth-gone-wrong film that makes up a significant sub-genre in Japan while being almost entirely non-existent here in North America. Graphic scenes of attempted suicide, self abuse and teen on teen violence are included, thins that have never been real popular with the powers that be in North America and became pretty much verboten in the post-Columbine media environment.
Finally, and most intriguingly from my perspective, this novel is also being adapted right now by director JT Petty (The Burrowers, S&Man), which will give audiences a very rare chance to see material adapted almost simultaneously both within its country of origin and from an outside viewpoint, which I think could prove a very interesting little experiment.
The first teaser for the Takahashi version of Goth has just arrived online and while it's certainly not about to overwhelm anyone and has obvious budget limits there's some pretty compelling stuff in there. Check it out in the ScreenAnarchy Player below the break.