[https://asianmoviepulse.com/2025/07/film-review-new-group-2025-by-yuta-shimotsu/](https://asianmoviepulse.com/2025/07/film-review-new-group-2025-by-yuta-shimotsu/) 

Following the excellent “Best Wishes to All,” Yuta Shimotsu once again blends horror with biting social commentary, this time targeting the mindless conformity deeply rooted in Japanese society.   
  
The story revolves around two high school students, Ai (“I”) and Yu (“You”), a symbolic parallel that is hard to miss. Ai is an introverted, ordinary girl burdened with family troubles. One day, Yu, a transfer student recently returned from overseas, joins her school. Struggling to adjust to Japan’s rigid group mentality, he openly questions the necessity of belonging, whether to a group or even to a family. Ai becomes intrigued by him, but his emotional distance initially causes tension between them.

Soon, a bizarre incident disrupts school life: a student suddenly crouches on all fours in the schoolyard and refuses to move. Despite attempts by teachers and classmates to stop him, others begin to mimic his pose. The school embraces this growing “human pyramid” phenomenon, encouraging participation as something positive. Students continue joining, wearing eerily serene expressions. Ai and Yu appear unaffected at first, but they gradually find themselves at odds with everyone around them, including the faculty. What begins as an isolated event soon escalates into a mass phenomenon that engulfs the entire community.  
  
Check the full review in the link in the comments and let us know your thoughts on the film

Movie of the Day: New Group (2025) by Yuta Shimotsu