It doesn\u2019t take long for New Group to unleash its cosmic terror on Japan. The film kicks off with a collection of aggressive visuals that bombard Ai\u2019s subconscious and foreshadow the looming division. Ai (Anna Yamada) and Yu Kobayashi (Yuzu Aoki) are humble, reluctant characters who are used to ease the audience into New Group\u2019s grander ideas. Ai and Yu, as their names explicitly suggest, are meant to be echoes and inversions of each other. Ai is introverted, shy, and obedient, while transfer student Yu can\u2019t help but question every rigid custom and belief that he\u2019s presented with. Yu prides himself on his independence and the importance of building an individual identity. Ai, alternatively, is desperate to fit in and feel like she\u2019s a part of something bigger. There\u2019s a strong enough foundation to both of these characters that makes how they negotiate the film\u2019s central problem very entertaining.<\/p>\n
Ai and Yu try to make sense of the spectacle before them, which allows New Group to engage in some deeper and more profound questions. The film is rich with examples where individuality breeds division and is treated like a problem. Bullying is the most overt example of this, but New Group subtly indoctrinates the audience with recurring punishments for those who fall out of line and don\u2019t reinforce hegemony, whether it\u2019s someone who can\u2019t march in sync with the rest of their peers or art classes that explicitly squash individual expression in favor of replicating an existing style. All this is in favor of creating a powerful feeling of belonging and acceptance for those who fit into society\u2019s neatly-regimented puzzle, and isolation and rejection for those who seek to defy. New Group features so many casual acts of conformity so that it\u2019s clear that reputations and social standing are paramount to these characters.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Shimotsu\u2019s Best Wishes To All previously unpacked Japan\u2019s rural depopulation issues and people\u2019s prescribed roles in society. New Group instead examines societal conformity and the toxic groupthink that erodes independence. This subject matter is ripe for discussion in Japan and something that many films put under the microscope. However, New Group is the only one that breaks down the idea through a hypnotic human pyramid that\u2019s made out of hundreds of people.<\/p>\n
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New Group is such a fascinating experimental masterpiece because of how naturally it segues from these everyday acts to the perilous sight of a human pyramid that slowly, gradually begins to accumulate people. What initially seems like a playful lark turns into a hive-mind-like act of preservation. It\u2019s an absurd act, but it\u2019s easy to reduce this rebellious performance art into a community act of unity. And if being a part of this human pyramid is an act of togetherness and support, then those who don\u2019t take part in it must clearly want the opposite. More and more bodies get added to this human pyramid to the point that it stops looking like a collective mass of humans. It\u2019s apt that joining this pyramid, while presented as empowering, is an erasure of identity as individuals give up and retreat to the comfort of this blissful obedience. The feeling that these students experience in New Group is hardly unique to Japan, yet it\u2019s an effective setting where not fitting into society\u2019s prescribed borders is akin to not existing.<\/p>\n
New Group revolves around a genuinely surreal premise, but it\u2019s rather masterful in how it normalizes such abrasive imagery. The growing human pyramid creeps up and fills the frame until it just feels like another static object and not some writhing mass of individuals because, at a point, it\u2019s not anymore. It\u2019s become this singular abstraction that\u2019s truly the sum of its pieces. Director Shimotsu wants the audience to be numb to this spectacle, just like the compliant individuals who pledge themselves to the \u201cGreater Good.\u201d The film\u2019s final act brilliantly doubles down on this premise so that rebellion and individuality can just become another version of conformity. An esoteric picture like New Group that vibes on visuals and ideas, rather than specifics, is bound to face issues when it needs to start wrapping things up and making sense of everything. New Group doesn\u2019t fall apart with its ending. It finds a conclusion that\u2019s the perfect way to bring all this to a head that also manages to be just as absurd as the central premise.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s all an extremely effective way to highlight how perceived happiness and compliance don\u2019t always translate to fulfillment and what\u2019s actually best for someone. The bodies that the human pyramid amasses submit themselves to a greater whole and lose themselves in the process, but they couldn\u2019t look happier during their assimilation. It\u2019s a reminder that the veneer of perfection and bliss can surround an empty shell. Alternatively, New Group argues if this mass ignorance and subservience is really that bad. It\u2019s a chilling perspective to consider during a time when it\u2019s easier for many to put their heads down and join the growing human pyramid, rather than fight against it.<\/p>\n
New Group\u2019s story elegantly unfurls, revealing a method to this madness, as each new layer helps make sense of the scenario. New Group makes the audience question its insane visuals that are designed to unnerve. This psychological assault also finds the perfect moments to weaponize some bizarre black humor. One of the silliest and most successful moments from New Group involves a romantic embrace between two characters that looks like it\u2019s being acted out by aliens. \u201cIs it a horror or a comedy?\u201d gets innocently asked early on in the film. One can\u2019t help but feel as if it\u2019s a question that\u2019s applicable to the entirety of New Group and the audience\u2019s forced state of mind over how to react to all this. New Group wants the audience to simultaneously cackle and cower. This becomes easier as the film grows progressively absurd and crescendoes to such a peak where it feels like an anime that\u2019s come to life. It\u2019s one of the most insane finales that I\u2019ve ever seen.<\/p>\n
Y\u00fbta Shimotsu\u2019s New Group is one of the most exciting horror movies to come out of 2025 and hopefully just the start of what will be a busy career for Shimotsu. New Group solidifies Shimotsu\u2019s status as an anarchic and experimental storyteller who cuts to the core of universal topics through extremely unconventional means. At only 82 minutes, New Group doesn\u2019t waste the audience\u2019s time or belabor this surreal experience. It\u2019s a bold step forward for J-horror that\u2019s needed now more than ever, now that disruptors like Sion Sono are out of the picture. New Group is outrageous in all the right ways and successfully turns an acrobatic formation into existential terror.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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