I saw this short film as more of from the pov of the young boy who is weak and powerless to the effects of the bullies and it's mirrored by the times of change and the powerlessness of the citizens trying to overcome constant advances in society and how they impact the old.
Hiroshi Harada has also said in an interview that he suffered from bullying a lot as a kid and this short was the experimental graduate film that he did to express all the pain and suffering from those experiences.
And he also wanted to showcase how in the adult world it's still a very commonplace thing that the strong look down on the weak.
You can see his style in Midori (Another anime I've reviewed) and he credits this style as being a Montage but also understands as he was a 19/20-year-old it came off looking quite bad. Which personally I think got better in Midori, as here I feel is more trying to shock rather than horrorfy.
Overall I think the message is a decent attempt and for a short film by a 19/20-year-old it's astounding how decent it is considering that Hiroshi did a chunk of the work himself.
