August in the Water is a 1995 film by Japanese director Gakuryū Ishii, formerly known as Sogo Ishii, also credited with such titles as Angel Dust (1994) and Mirrored Mind (2005). Often cited as the progenitor of cyberpunk-style filmmaking, Ishii turned to slower, more realistic stories after making a name for himself with his punk films in the 1980s. The familiarity of ordinary life in August in the Water is but a façade for the supernatural that lies beneath.

• The Girl and the Stones
• Of Water and Space
• The Ordinary in the Mystical
• Why It Matters

The Girl and the Stones

Izumi (Rena Komine) is a teenage girl who transfers to a new school, where she befriends two boys: Mao (Shinsuke Aoki) and Ukiya (Masaaki Takarai). While practicing high diving, she grows increasingly attached to Mao until a friend of Ukiya, Miki (Reiko Matsuo), predicts that Izumi will have a terrible accident. During a diving competition, the water under Izumi seems to turn to stone, and she crashes into it, going into a coma. Meanwhile, people throughout the city are falling ill due to the drought. This condition is called the “stone disease”.

After Izumi regains consciousness, it is clear that she has changed. She takes Mao to the nearby mountains, where two meteorites have recently landed, explaining that they have something to do with the disease and the drought. Initially astonished, Mao decides to believe Izumi, while others call her schizophrenic. Eventually, he will witness the mystical forces at play around the town, the meteorites, and Izumi.

Of Water and Space

August in the Water is a film full of potent visual imagery. From the beginning, the element of water is central: at a dolphin pool, at a festival where people throw water on running boys, and at Izumi’s high diving practice. When the drought hits and people begin to fall unconscious, the water disappears, and heat waves visibly scorch the air. Water is still central but in a negative way. Ishii focuses on the few drops falling from a high school yard faucet. In these moments, as if even the color of the water had evaporated from the images, the familiar streets and settings of the typical Japanese city are filtered through warm tones.

Another powerful element, though less pronounced, is space. The meteorites are something unearthly. Shots of the stars and the sky silently foretell the story’s direction, as well as Miki’s obsession with Zodiac signs and fortune telling through the position of the stars. Izumi first meets Mao and Ukiya on the school’s rooftop, where they all spend time just looking at the sky. At a critical moment, the film shows an extreme close-up of the moon, which remains present as a reflection on water throughout a key scene.

The Ordinary in the Mystical

As interpretative as it is, August in the Water deals with environmental issues, teenage relationships, and psychological issues. While many filmmakers use space or science fiction to illustrate everyday concerns, such as Blade Runner and its neon aesthetic, Ishii does so with a realistic style and look. This choice makes the unreal more mimetic and unsettling, and at the same time, it gives more power to the ordinary side of the story. As a result, instead of seeing a dystopian future, we see people fainting on crowded sidewalks, a young girl being hospitalized and treated like a freak, and TV news broadcasts alarming the population.

Apart from what’s obvious, August in the Water is the kind of film that allows viewers to make up their minds about it. In this sense, it may be similar to surrealistic films like David Lynch‘s, which contain imagery that can spark significance reaching beyond the plot – think about the famous eighth episode of Twin Peaks: The Return. Ishii achieves this sense of free interpretation by leaving some things unclear and through the film’s different turns, from being about teenage friendship to societal issues to a space mystery. And yet, it never loses focus, thanks to the constant, hypnotic visual suggestions, the charming characters, and the right pace.

Why It Matters

Although not widely known, August in the Water has received its share of praise, including being named one of the ten greatest Japanese films of the 1990s by the British Film Institute. At a time when franchises and other formats are raising concerns about traditional cinema and times of environmental and spiritual crisis, August in the Water can speak to everyone. After all, a warning from the past century can feel even more powerful than one made today, reminding us that we have let those warnings pass us by before.

August in the Water also shows us how powerful storytelling can be when it allows the viewer to fill in the blanks and how it can capture us and change our perspective on important issues without shouting them from start to finish.