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In Osaka's slum, youth without futures engage in pilfering, assault and robbery, prostitution, and the buying and selling of identity cards and of blood. Alliances constantly shift. Tatsu and Takeshi, friends since boyhood, reluctantly join Shin's gang. Shin's an upstart and moves his gang often to avoid the local kingpin. Hanoko is a young woman with ambitions: first she's in the blood business with her father, then she joins forces with Shin. She soon breaks off that partnership, even though she's taken the sensitive Takeshi under her wing. Double crosses multiply. Those with the closest bonds become each others' murderers. Written by
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This sometimes brutal look at post war Osaka seems like a companion piece to Oshima's "Naked Youth". Seemingly aimless young people engage in criminal gang behavior, generally causing mayhem. You have to immediate give credit to Oshima for being unflinching in this story. This is not a story where you'll even like any character, least of all Hanoko, who has pretty but also pretty dead black eyes. In her eyes you see the futile existence in living there and leading the lifestyle they lead. The film's title appears to be a political one, as if Japan will be no more. The film's message is now dated, but its an effective film nonetheless. Oshima didn't compromise in his work, sometimes for better or for worse, but he is unique. If you're looking for redemption, its not really here. watch it for its portrait of gang life in a Japan rarely shown at any time to the general public. Its violent but worth your time.