1999: an adolescent boy has recently committed suicide at a single-sex boarding school in a remote Japanese forest. During the summer vacation, only three students remain at the empty school, idling away their time with quiet study. But one day, another boy arrives who exactly resembles the dead student, and violent passions are unleashed. Inspired by The Heart of Thomas, a legendary manga series by Moto Hagio, this beguiling, homoerotic film by Shusuke Kaneko blends mystery, horror, melodrama, and sci-fi – with a nod to Alfred Hitchcock and Vertigo. Released in 1988 but set in the future, the film is strikingly androgenous: the boys are all played by female actors, lending a subversive, gender-fluid feel to its exploration of teenage yearning and desire.