Sasayaki

Except for a few slow patches, the movie is compulsively watchable: You keep waiting to see just how sick things are going to get.

A disturbing, and disturbingly funny, twist on adolescent love, and Shiota captures the emotional avalanche with understanding.

Surprisingly poignant, thanks to its enduring sense of tenderness.

Newcomer Akihiko Shiota shows talent as a director, but he allows Sasayaki to go on too long.

There's a little more sex than you'll see on WB, but mostly there's an atmosphere of brooding psychodrama and erotic cruelty that falls somewhere between "Cries and Whispers" and "Say Anything."

It's not always clear what this film is driving at, but Shiota makes the weirdness visually arresting.

Good acting and understated filmmaking turn off-putting material into a mildly engrossing drama, if not a particularly compelling one.