Seishun zankoku monogatari (1960)

User Rating:

7.0/10   

Director:

Nagisa Oshima

Writer:

Nagisa Oshima (writer)

Release Date:

July 1961 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Makoto and Kiyoshi's generation follows their desires. She's in high school when a university student...

Plot Keywords:

Gay Interest | Misfit | Teenage Angst | Young Lovers | Drifter

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Yusuke Kawazu	...	Kiyoshi
Miyuki Kuwano	...	Makoto
Yoshiko Kuga	...	Yuki, Makoto's elder
Fumio Watanabe	...	Akimoto, the doctor
Shinji Tanaka	...	Yoshimi Ito, student
Yosuke Hayashi
Shinjiro Matsuzaki	...	Terada
Toshiko Kobayashi	...	Teruko
Jun Hamamura	...	Masahiro, Makoto's
Shinko Ujiie	...	Masae Sakaguchi
Aki Morishima	...	Yoko Ishikawa
Yuki Tominaga	...	Toshiko Nishioka
Kei Sato	...	Akira Matsuko
Asao Sano	...	Inspector
Hiroshi Nihon'yanagi	...	Keizo Horio

Also Known As:

A Story of the Cruelties of Youth
Cruel Story of Youth
Naked Youth

Runtime:

96 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Hong Kong:III | UK:15 (2008) | West Germany:18

Company:

Shochiku Ofuna

Trivia:

The adult subject matter was too much for the BBFC who rejected the film for a UK cinema certificate in 1960. It was finally passed uncut with a 15 certificate in 2008.

Movie Connections:

Featured in 100 Years of Japanese Cinema (1994) (TV)

Best Movie You've Never Seen

See Cruel Story of Youth. It is an amazing film. Oshima Nagisa is probably best known for his avant garde work- films like "In the Realm of the Senses" and "Diary of a Shinjuku Thief"- but his earlier work is more compelling, if less sensational. This film tells the story of Makoto and Kiyoshi, two youths who suffer from the social malaise typical of their generation. They express their frustration in violent and poetic ways, which makes up the substance of the film's narrative. But putting all that aside, it's beautifully filmed and by it's end, completely heartwrenching. The color contrast is almost unprecedented- bright reds and blues set against pitch blacks. At times it has the sensibility of a yakuza film- violence abounds and Oshima makes use of sharp pans typical of that genre, giving it a very cool, retro feel. At it's core it's a love story, but of a sort that modern audiences will probably never see in a contemporary film. It shows love as the cruelest thing imaginable, making it difficult to watch at times, but in the end, impossible to forget.