The Kirishima Thing

The Kirishima Thing (桐島、部活やめるってよ, 2012) is a Japanese drama you can watch online on iFILM. Directed by Daihachi Yoshida, it landed Picture of the Year at the 2013 Japan Academy Prize.

Kirishima — the star of the school volleyball team — simply stops coming to practice one day. No explanation. That single absence shifts the balance across the entire school: the students at the top lose their footing, and the ones who had always been invisible find themselves occupying new territory. Ryunosuke Kamiki and Ai Hashimoto head the cast.

The setting is a Japanese high school, but the dynamics are universal. Stream The Kirishima Thing (2012) online on iFILM.