Jun Ariyoshi (Ryuhei Matsuda), who works at a gay bar, is sexually assulted by a customer, goes into a frenzy and kills the man. While being transported to a juvenile detention facility, Jun meets another young man Shiro Kazuki (Masanobu Ando), an impressive handsome youth with curious tattoos. The story follows the emotional homoerotic relationship between these two juvenile prisoners. Shiro displays his brute force from the beginning and the timid Jun is attracted to Shiro's intensity and strength. Jun is the only person Shiro opens up to as they accept each other for who they are.
Near the beginning of the film a guard witnesses a murder. One of the young men strangles another prisoner in a common area. As the victim takes his last breath, the assailant cries, "It's Jun". Tears flow down the face of the young man who turns to the guard. It is Jun. The man lying dead on the floor is Shiro. We realize that what seems to be an act of homicide is a consequence of a much more complex past, which is revealed in a story that meanders from the present to the past, and back, to possible futures. A series of flashbacks and fragments of Jun and Shiro's memories are mixed with their yearnings, anxieties and tensions in the world they are imprisoned in. In the end, two detectives solve the murder of Shiro, but the real resolution remains unspoken and hidden in Jun and Shiro's relationship.
Director Miike Takashi offers no easy way to understand his two protagonists, yet a few times he hints that child abuse may be the real crime to condemn. The prison, shown in a brownish yellow atmosphere, is literally the centre stage of this mystery, since many of the scenes strongly resemble a theater play. But the prison also offers a strong metaphor of our modern life, as Miike reminds us in the final scenes. Everyone is a prisoner of everyday life. Miike considers "Big Bang Love: A Juvenile Love Story of 4600 Million Years" his masterpiece, and it is certainly his most intellectually and aesthetically challenging film. Sexual tensions and explosive violence drive the story which delivers some weird and fascinating visuals. Masa Nakamura wrote the screenplay based on the novel "Shônen A erejî" by Ikki Kajiwara and Hisao Maki. "46-okunen no koi" translates as "The Love of 4600 Million Years". In Japanese with English subtitles. The English titles are "Big Bang Love, Juvenile A" and "4.6 Billion Years of Love".
