Cult Epics: School in the Crosshairs (1981) - Reviewed

Images courtesy of Cult Epics

Back in 2022, British boutique releasing label Third Window Films unveiled a four-film collector’s limited edition of pictures called Nobuhiko Obayashi’s 80s Kadokawa Years consisting of School in the Crosshairs, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, The Island Closest to Heaven and His Motorbike Her Island.  While that collector’s set has long since sold out and was exclusive to United Kingdom customers, it would seem domestic US boutique label Cult Epics have been gradually picking them back up and releasing them stateside.  Previously they released a deluxe collector’s package of His Motorbike Her Island so naturally they followed suit with School in the Crosshairs covered by Michelle Kisner on her Obayashi piece here. 

 
Based on the 1973 sci-fi novel Psychic School Wars by Taku Mayumura and prominently starring Hiroko Yakushimaru who would also star in the obvious teen idol companion piece Sailor Suit and Machine Gun that same year, School in the Crosshairs is every bit as screwy funky weird cool hip as Obayashi’s still hallucinatory House while also being a paean to the Japanese high-school coming-of-age experience.  Yuka (Hiroko Yakushimaru) is an ordinary high-school girl who inadvertently discovers she has latent telekinetic powers while trying to prevent a car accident from ensuing.  Leaning on her kendo club boyfriend Koji for help (Ryôichi Takayanagi), she becomes increasingly aware of a shift in the school as a new student begins imposing fascistic control on the classrooms including but not limited to Nazi-like hall patrollers and throwing a lasso on dissent.  It soon becomes apparent some sort of extraterrestrial forces are at play and she must use her newfound supernatural abilities to save the school and perhaps the world itself.

 
A screwball psychotronic psychedelic freakout that’s at once playful and sensorily overwhelming building towards a kind of fireworks finale of hyperkinetic visual effects shots and a truly otherworldly sound design of echoes and metallic electronic rumblings by Masataka Matsutoya, School in the Crosshairs is an absolutely unmitigated dose of wildness.  Between its intentionally goofy performances as characters become possessed by funky-haired aliens donning outlandish costumes, striking neon-lit optical superimpositions and playfully spectacular visual effects shots, it unfolds as a kind of kaleidoscopic cocktail that keeps coming and coming until the brisk ninety-minute running time is up.  From the film’s funky visual aesthete by House cinematographer Yoshitaka Sakamoto featuring overtly unrealistic superimposed skies in stark contrast with the filmed footage to the increasingly zany score by Kiki’s Delivery Service composer Masataka Matsutoya, Obayashi’s riff on the high-school film is a multicolored Christmas Tree of a screwball offbeat film. 

 
Utilizing the 2K restoration on the Third Window release, the Cult Epics release includes an audio commentary by Max Robinson, a visual essay by Phillip Jeffries, a poster gallery, theatrical trailers and a full booklet reprinting of the original Japanese press kit.  For those who already own the Third Window set you’re inclined to hang onto it while those new to the Obayashi films should absolutely pick up the Cult Epics release.  Something tells me the other two films within the Obayashi Third Window set will eventually make their respective stateside debuts via Cult Epics who seem to be picking up the licenses for Third Window titles that have yet to be released here.  All in all a good set of one truly hilarious and utterly deliriously watchable teen idol flick.

--Andrew Kotwicki