Cruel Story of Youth

Cruel Story of Youth
Riichiro Manabe
Production company	Shochiku
Release date	June 3, 1960 (1960-06-03) (Japan)
Running time	96 minutes
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese

Cruel Story of Youth (

for Ōshima.

Plot

After Makoto Shinjo

, and then later to ride a motorboat on a river, where he rapes her. One day, after trying to wait for him at a bar he frequents, she is targeted by gangsters who prostitute women, but Kiyoshi fights them and they leave them alone in exchange for a payment. The two fall in love and Makoto spends more time with him, causing her to be rebuked by her older sister Yuki, resulting in her deciding to live with him. To make money, the two reconstruct how they met, with Makoto seducing a driver and, when he comes on to her, Kiyoshi extorting him. In one case, a middle-aged, wealthy business-owner named Horio picks her up, but makes her feel happy so she doesn't do it.

When Makoto finds out that she is pregnant, Kiyoshi tells her to get an abortion, but when he tries to get her to exploit a driver again, she refuses. Horio picks her up, and when she calls Kiyoshi to ask whether she can stay the night, the line is busy. Kiyoshi asks an older lover he is seeing for a loan and when he gives the money to Makoto, she tells him she slept with Horio. In response he finds Horio and takes money from him, telling him that he was just another target of Makoto's. After the abortion, performed illegally at the clinic of Yuki's former lover Akimoto, the couple is arrested for extortion. After they confess, and with the help of Kiyoshi's older lover, the two are released and Akimoto is arrested.

Kiyoshi breaks up with Makoto so they won't hurt each other anymore. The gangsters find Kiyoshi because the motorbike he borrowed from them for the extortions was stolen, resulting in two of them being arrested. They ask him to give them Makoto, but Kiyoshi refuses and is killed. At the same time Makoto is given a ride by a passerby, and when he refuses to let her out, she jumps out of the car to her death.

Cast

• Yūsuke Kawazu as Kiyoshi Fujii
• Miyuki Kuwano as Makoto Shinjo
• Yoshiko Kuga as Makoto's elder sister Yuki
• Fumio Watanabe as Akimoto
• Shinji Tanaka as Yoshimi Ito, student
• Shinjiro Matsuzaki as Terada
• Toshiko Kobayashi as Teruko Shimonishi

Production

Ōshima, who was only 28 at the time, made extensive use of hand-held cameras and location shooting, and the results drew comparisons to the French nouvelle vague filmmakers emerging at around the same time; the film became one of the primary films in the Nūberu bāgu.

The use of adolescent criminals as protagonists generated controversy at the time, though the film was also a commercial success, which helped to pave the way for the emergence of a young and adventurous generation of new Japanese filmmakers: in short order,

and others began to attract international attention. In this film, Ōshima was already beginning to explore the themes he would soon become celebrated for: a focus on youth and on 'outsiders', and critical deconstructions of more stereotypical imagery in Japanese cinema.

Reception

The film won the 1960

References

Further reading

• Donald Richie (2003). 100 Years Of Japanese Cinema: Kodansha.
• Joan Mellen (1975). The Waves At Genji's Door: Japan Through Its Cinema: Pantheon.
• Tadao Sato (1982). Currents In Japanese Cinema: Kodansha.

External links

• Cruel Story of Youth at
  IMDb
• Cruel Story of Youth at the Japanese Movie Database (in Japanese)
• Cruel Story of Youth at AllMovie
• Cruel Story of Youth at Rotten Tomatoes