Based on his interactive on-line novel, filmmaker Shunji Iwai’s bleak glimpse into the solipsistic world of Japanese teenagers is a visually stunning étude full of pensive slow takes, heart-stopping tableaux, and frenetic high-def DVD color. What may challenge viewers is its ambitious structure and its hard-to-follow plot.

Yûichi (Hayato Ichihara) comes of age among friends who, after an ill-fated holiday in Okinawa, regress from being mischievous honor students to bullying, stealing, pimping, and raping with existential abandon. Yûichi escapes to his music (slouching in pastoral rice fields with his CD player) and to his computer, where he discusses ethereal, mysterious pop star Lily Chou-Chou with other fans. These flat chat-room sequences sometimes exacerbate the film’s disjointedness, even as it becomes clear that the chat room is where these disaffected youth find some sense of safety and purpose. Brave, grounded performances by a young unknown cast give a jolting authenticity to Iwai’s technophilic vision. And the lush, eclectic soundtrack (punk, Debussy, Enya-esque pop) adds juice to the ghost-limbed narrative, which, perhaps intentionally, seems most accessible when it leaps into cyberspace. In Japanese with English subtitles. (146 minutes)