Obayashi’s first groundbreaking pop idol picture is a dazzling mix of special effects and blue-screen artifice—a stylistic flair perfected in his debut feature HAUSU, now utilized to depict the onset of an alien invasion. Ordinary schoolgirl Yuka’s (Yakushimaru) new term comes to an odd start when she inexplicably stops an accident by using latent psychic powers. Troubled by her newfound abilities, Yuka also senses a strange force start to take hold of the school, with students turning into mind-controlled fascists, patrolling school halls, stifling dissent and mandating the re-education of freethinkers. A psychotronic fantasy forged into a young girl’s destiny to defend the planet, SCHOOL IN THE CROSSHAIRS is a cosmic overload of extraterrestrial tyrants, preternatural powers and Obayashi’s uniquely adroit filmmaking abilities, underlaid with an existential cry for free will. – adapted from notes for Japan Society NYC