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An Adolescent
Metascore
54 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 8 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 8
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 8
  3. Negative: 0 out of 8
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  1. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: G. Allen Johnson
    75
    An interesting film, and while it is not entirely successful (and at times most puzzling), it achieves a certain poignancy.
  2. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Mark Olsen
    70
    Okuda creates that slightly surreal atmosphere of ghost-town emptiness that will be familiar to fans of Takeshi Miike, but he infuses it with a romantic's sense of deep yearning.
  3. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Drew Tillman
    60
    Although the movie drags, Okuda (who also directed) makes for a gloriously bad lieutenant, while Ozawa is enjoyably discomfiting in her unblushing carnality.
  4. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kevin Thomas
    60
    Decidedly uneven yet intriguing.
  5. New York Post
    Reviewed by: V.A. Musetto
    50
    Okuda's debut behind the camera, Shoujyo, is a dirty old man's delight: schoolgirls galore in short skirts or, in Yoko's case, nothing at all. That may be enough for some viewers, but not for those who insist on a story that gives substance to its characters.
  6. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Maitland McDonagh
    50
    Suicide, child molestation, corruption, insanity and the faintest implication of incest are wound around the film's suggestion that the cure for modern-day alienation and anomie lies in embracing traditional Japanese culture, like ritual tattooing.
  7. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Tasha Robinson
    50
    The problem is that both as a director and as an actor, Okuda never makes a particularly convincing case either for sex or for deeper commitment as a road away from the abyss.
  8. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Lawrence Van Gelder
    50
    The film, at least 20 minutes too long, has too many competing story lines to succeed as more than an oddball mood piece.
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