Typhoon Club 1985

From the outset, Rie Takami stands at the center of a week-long story in a quiet town just outside Tokyo, where a class of middle school students and their teacher, Umemiya, navigate life under the shadow of an approaching typhoon. The film paints a portrait of the group by exploring their varied backgrounds and the dynamics between the students and the teacher, with a mood that shifts as the storm closes in.

Two relationships anchor the emotional arc: the tentative bond between Kyoichi Mikami and Rie Takami, strained when he reveals he’ll leave town to study in Tokyo, and the complicated crushes that color the room: Ken Shimizu lives with his alcoholic father and secretly harbors a crush on Michiko Omachi, a tension that slips into a cruel moment during a science class. Off to one side, two girls, Yumi and Yasuko, share a secret relationship, adding another layer to the school’s precarious electricity.

On the day it starts raining, Rie runs away from home to go to the city while a few of the students get locked up inside the campus. She spends the day with a college student but decides against staying the night with him in order to get home. However, she gets stuck in the city when the storm causes the trains to shut down. Back in the campus, Mikami tries to reach out to Rie’s parents and Umemiya but neither of the adults seem to worry about the teens or offer any help to rescue them from the storm. Previously stressed about his and his peers’ situation, Mikami ultimately joins his friends as they find joy in the typhoon-stricken school. Later, meditating on his question about life and death, he asks his friends to witness his death and continue living as he jumps from a classroom window. Rie returns to town the next day and finds…