Ao no Honō

Ao no Honō 青の炎
Directed by	Yukio Ninagawa
Produced by	Tsuguhiko Kadokawa Tamotsu Shiina
Written by	Yukio Ninagawa (screenplay) Takuya Miyawaki (screenplay) Yusuke Kishi (novel)
Starring	Kazunari Ninomiya Aya Matsuura Anne Suzuki Kumiko Akiyoshi
Music by	Hideki Tōgi
Cinematography	Osamu Fujiishi
Edited by	Akimasa Kawashima
Distributed by	Toho Company Ltd.
Release dates	March 15, 2003
Running time	116 minutes
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese

Ao no Honō (青の炎 The Blue Flame, internationally known as The Blue Light)^[1] is a 2003 Japanese film based on the novel of the same name by Yusuke Kishi, directed and co-written by Yukio Ninagawa, and starring Kazunari Ninomiya and Aya Matsuura. The film portrays Ninomiya playing Shūichi, a high school student finding a way to get rid of his stepfather, who returns home and begins to terrorize his family.

Ao no Honō was released in Japan on March 15, 2003 and was shown at the Cannes Film Festival in France on May 15, 2003.^[1]

Plot

Shūichi Kushimori (Kazunari Ninomiya) lives with this mother Yūko (Kumiko Akiyoshi) and younger stepsister Haruka (Anne Suzuki). One day, his estranged stepfather Ryūji Sone (Kansai Yamamoto) suddenly returns home and begins to freeload off his family. After Shūichi encounters what appeared to be Sone making sexual advances towards Haruka one night, he tries to get rid of Sone. However, Shūichi discovers that it is impossible to do so legally.

During his art class, he secretly returns home to a sleeping Sone. After thorough research and experimentation on electrocution, he carries out his plan and kills his stepfather. The police declares that Sone had died of natural causes.

Shūichi continues his everyday life and begins seeing classmate Noriko Fukuhara (Aya Matsuura). One day, Takuya Ishioka (Yosuke Kawamura), a classmate who skips school and causes trouble, goes to see him at the convenience store where he works. Ishioka, who knows what Shūichi did, threatens to tell the police if Shūichi does not get him 300,000 yen (approx. $3,000 USD) in a week.

In his room, Haruka reveals to him that Sone had been dying of cancer. Although Shūichi regrets his actions, in order to keep Ishioka quiet, he fools Ishioka into staging a robbery at his workplace. Shūichi stabs him, making it look like an act of self-defense. However, police officer Masashi Kano (Baijaku Nakamura), who also met Shūichi at the time of Sone's murder, finds flaws in Shūichi's claims and actions.

While seeing Noriko home at the train station, Shūichi admits to her that he is a murderer. The police manages to uncover the truth of what really happened to Sone and Ishioka, but Kano lets Shūichi go home on the basis that he promises to willingly turn himself in the next day. After having breakfast as usual with his family and leaving a tape-recording for Noriko at school, Shūichi commits suicide. In his tape-recording, Shūichi talks about his favorite things. Noriko stops coloring her drawing of a future Shūichi blue to listen.

Cast

Actor	Role
Kazunari Ninomiya	Shūichi Kushimori
Aya Matsuura	Noriko Fukuhara
Kumiko Akiyoshi	Yūko Kushimori
Kansai Yamamoto	Ryūji Sone
Baijaku Nakamura	Eiji Yamamoto
Anne Suzuki	Haruka Kushimori
Naomasa Rokudaira	Masashi Kano
Toshiaki Karasawa	Shintarō Kanzaki
Yosuke Kawamura	Takuya Ishioka
Naoto Takenaka	Shishobako no Otoko

See also

• Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum

References

1. "Release dates for The Blue Light". IMDB. Retrieved 2010-07-11.

External links

• Ao no Honō at the Internet Movie Database