AllMovie

Left Handed takes place in a suburb of Tokyo and centers around a disaffected teenage boy, Hiroshi who is struggling at school, socially and academically. One day he shuts himself away in his bedroom and for the next two years refuses to come out or let anyone in. Hiroshi’s parents are so ashamed that they attempt to conceal his condition from family and friends. Inevitably the household gradually disintegrates into chaos as the truth threatens to expose the cracks, not only in this one family but society as a whole. Based on the uniquely Japanese condition of Hikikomori, which is estimated to affect one million Japanese teens and young adults, mostly males. Their funk can last for weeks, months and in extreme cases years. The symptoms include a pattern of sleeping during the day, staying awake at night watching television and playing computer games, with complete withdrawal from family, friends, school and normal life. Japanese society has struggled to deal with the condition, hampered by the tendency to hide it from the outside world.