Ueta raion

During the last few years, most films and TV series about teenage life are concerned with the question of online shaming, bullying and harassing, which usually have tragic consequences. THE HUNGRY LION can be included in that cycle, as it tells the story of a young female student who has to suffer the consequences of (probably) having been filmed in a sex video by a professor. What happens next comes directly from that viral situation: the rumor is unstoppable and Hitomi is shamed and marginalized by those who were her friends. But in its very concise and stark 78 minutes, Ogata Takaomi manages to go further than that, complicating and deepening the situation, opening it up to discussions about teenage sexuality in these complicated and virtual times. In its frank and precise way, the film shows the process of how online shaming can destroy a life and, then, how people can forget about it like nothing happened. With no help from her friends or family, Hitomi becomes a pariah, a rumor, an anecdote, a meme. THE HUNGRY LION is a horror story. A cautionary tale. (Diego Lerer)

In the presence of Ogata Takaomi.