The Cinematheque

“Follows summertime abandon to the extreme … [P.P. Rider] arrives at an intersection between realism and fantasy that’s as thorny as it is rich.”

Patrick Preziosi, MUBI Notebook

From the organized chaos of its opening long take to its jaw-dropping finale, P.P. Rider is an ecstatic picaresque, a grand display of classical genre and limit-testing technique in constant, productive tension. Jojo, Jishu, and Bruce—an unbreakable, nearly interchangeable trio linked by their outsider status—leave school to pursue a group of criminals after the kidnapping of their class bully. This principled pursuit takes them from Yokohama to Atami to Nagoya and beyond, and involves them in exuberant, dangerous action stunts. There’s the world they live in, where the only laws are the ones enacted by their acrobatic chases and games, and the one we can view, where bloodshed and gravity—at least seemingly—have the power to prevail. Somai extends the space of the screen with non-naturalistic isolated sound, while Ito Akihiro and Tamura Masaki (Tampopo, 2/​Duo) pilot the camera.

In Japanese with English subtitles

“In P. P. Rider, the convergence of three yakuza, four teenagers, and a schoolteacher in a canal brimming with floating lumber yields more slipping, splashing, shouting, and shooting slapstick than Mack Sennett could have dreamt of across a dozen reels.”

Bingham Bryant, Brooklyn Rail

“One intricately blocked long take follows another … As impressive an introduction as you’re likely to find to a filmmaker whose work remains criminally underseen.”

Matthew Thrift, BFI