Set in snow-covered Hokkaido, each moment of three high school boy’s life is captured in rough monochrome. Three high school boys on the verge of graduating from high school start working at a security guard company owned by an older student in their hometown.

Acclaimed for his rigorous approach to character study, anchored in stillness, place and memory, Sho Miyake (2025’s Golden Leopard winner Two Seasons, Two Strangers) has carved a unique space within Japanese cinema. His career begins with Good for Nothing (2010) and Playback (2012), two melancholic “slacker” narratives that encapsulate the liminality of growing up as well as cinema’s ability to capture lost time.

Miyake’s debut, Good for Nothing, set in his native Sapporo, Hokkaido, chronicles the lives of a trio of young men on the cusp of graduation. After a wave of break-ins hits the the wintry town, the boys find work at local security systems company… when not joyriding and wandering, strewn as they are between juvenile delinquency and the requirements of respectability. A remarkably youthful film, it unfolds as a decentralized character study set in a close-knit community. Captured in a spellbinding, rough-edged monochrome, it is a poignant reminiscence of youth, echoing forward in time from 1999 (1999), an experimental short Miyake shot in high school. -KANI RELEASING

Featuring post-screening Q&A with filmmaker Sho Miyake. Presented in partnership with the Japan Foundation Toronto. 

Doors Open 30 Minutes Before Showtime.