“In this picture about reform school life (Hani) chose his cast from those boys who had already served their time, took them back into the school, and had them reconstruct their life for him. Starting with no story at all, he gradually built up a series of situations - fighting official opposition all the way - and in the end created a film both perceptive and honest about a section of the population about which Japanese society, as do most, finds it expedient to be uninformed.... While the boys were sometimes told what a situation was, the dialogue was their own, as was the ‘acting'.... The boys fell back into their old reform school ways at once, Hani has said, but with a difference.... They were reliving their old lives. This gave the film a deliberate quality. It made the boys thoughtful....”