Shinsedai Cinema Festival: Good for Nothing

The plot synopsis for the film Good for Nothing is as follows:

A trio of young men coming up to their high school graduation find themselves walking a fine line between juvenile delinquency and adult respectability in the wintery landscape of Sapporo, Hokkaido . They try and choose the latter by getting jobs with a company that installs security systems in private homes. The problem is that the son of their new boss is an ex-con more used to breaking into houses than safe-guarding them. Will this trio find their way or will consequence and bad decisions derail their attempts at a bright future? 

I’ve included the synopsis in this review because there is no way that you’ll be able to decipher what Good for Nothing is about just by watching the film.  The film just lets the plot play out without really giving any context about the overall story.  In fact, the only real storyline I got from this film involved the hunt for a stolen pick-up truck.

Because of the fact that I thought the film was all plot and no story, I initially thought that the film came off as a bit dull.  The dialogue in the film is quite minimal and comes off more as natural conversation, as opposed to constant exposition that explains the story.  Despite the lack of story, I still found myself getting more interested in the actions of the characters as the film goes on.

Either though there’s no real start and no real resolution, Good for Nothing comes off as a intriguing “slice of life” for the three main characters.

 7 | FAIR