Depicting youth and depicting the process of maturation are bound to have similarities. Perhaps it’s because youth is the turning point in the universal passage of life. The high school students in TANADA Yuki’s Ain’t No Tomorrows go through this crucial chapter of life in the throes of passion and curiosity; the movie ends with their graduation. Three boy-girl couples comprise the cast. Hiruma likes his classmate Tomono, but she’s involved in a sexual relationship with her teacher. Hiruma hovers around her, alternately beating up the teacher and taking Tomono on trips to the seaside. But none of this constitutes a solution. When Tomono approaches him at graduation, Hiruma displays a changed attitude toward her. Has his passion dissipated? Mine is drawn to Shizu, who is inordinately curious about sex. But he is just as unpracticed at the real thing. Then there are the boy and girl who watch porn together at the theatre. TANADA does not depict these delinquent youths in dramatic fashion. The movie touches on diverse teenage issues, including underage prostitution, bullying, and sex, but not with a uniformly dark tone. The central focus of its 70-minute running time is the unidentifiable insecurity of youth at school, at home, and everywhere they go. As revealed in her previous film, One Million Yen Girl starring AOI Yu, the uncertain direction and insecurity of youth are TANADA’s take on the teenage worldview. The reality of youth, gripped by passion yet foiled by missteps at every turn, stem from their naïveté and lack of experience. But those same qualities allow them to be honest and direct; their faces betray their inner turmoil through various rites of passage. Flushed with sexual excitement, tormented by love, or feigning nonchalance, their faces are what make this film. Between the girls’ apathetic looks and the boys’ bumbling awkwardness, their lives flow similarly yet differently for each. (LEE Sang Yong)