Cruel Story of Youth (Seishun zankoku)
Directed by Nagisa Oshima
Written by Nagisa Oshima
1960/Japan
Shochiku Ofuna
First viewing/FilmStruck
[box] “Funny,” he intoned funereally, “how just when you think life can’t possibly get any worse it suddenly does.” – Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy[/box]
Oshima is not growing on me. You can’t help but admiring the filmmaking but two hours of sex-fueled nihilism is not my cup of sake.
I’m not exactly sure how they fit in but the story coincides with some violent student rioting in South Korea. Makoto is a sweet-looking young high school student who has no problem cadging rides with middle-aged men. When one inevitably comes on to her low-life Kiyoshi comes to her rescue and extorts money in the process in exchange for not going to the police.
Kiyoshi knows that Makoto is secrety yearning for his studly young self so he rapes her when he gets her alone by a river. He throws her in then exacts his price for rescuing her. As in films of this mindset, Makoto becomes eternally devoted to him after this treatment. At first he tries to give her the brush off but then falls in love with her. She scandalizes her family by moving into his filthy bachelor pad. They decide to make ends meet by running the hitchhiker scam that brought them together. Events lead them to the inevitable mutually assured destruction. The moral seems to be that in modern Japan no one can protect anyone else against predators.
Oshima is clearly a talented filmmaker. I have a feeling he will never win me over but I will keep on trying on account of the eye candy.
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