Bad Company (2001): cast, story & where to watch

Released in 2001, Bad Company is a drama film directed by Tomoyuki Furumaya, running about 98 minutes.

What it’s about. It is 1980. Sadatomo is at a secondary school in a small town. His parents barely take any notice of him. The strict teacher Kobayashi has hung up a 'humanity index' in the classroom, divided into the categories 'delinquents', 'scum' and 'people'. In each category he has hung name-cards of pupils. One day Kobayashi finds out that Sadatomo and his friends have stolen some things from a shop for fun. Their fathers are informed and as punishment, the children have to write a 'self-critical' essay of no less than thirty pages. For the first time, Sadatomo is beaten by his father. Shocked, he writes a piece entitled 'I am an onion', in which the teacher thinks he can detect a first sign of humanity. That is the start of a confusing situation in which it gets hard to distinguish lies, truth, justified self-criticism and opportunist wheeler dealing, even for the boys.

Who’s in it. Bad Company stars Yamato Okitsu as Kôzu, Sadatomo, Ryosuke Takahashi as Nimura, Tetsuya, Yuta Nakajima as Nomura, Shuji and Ken Mitsuishi as Kôzu, Yoshiyuki (Sadatomo's Father), among others.

How it landed. With an audience score of 5.5/10, Bad Company has drawn a solid, mixed-to-positive response.

Where to watch. Streaming options change often. See the full, country-by-country breakdown on our where to watch Bad Company page.

If you liked it. Fans of Bad Company tend to enjoy The Shawshank Redemption, The Godfather, Schindler's List and The Godfather Part II.