Kishiwada shônen gurentai: Bôkyô (1998)

Director:

Takashi Miike

Writers:

Masa Nakamura (screenplay)
Riichi Nakaba (novel)

Release Date:

26 September 1998 (Japan)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Plot Keywords:

Based On Novel

Cast

Takeshi Caesar	...	Riichi's uncle
Setsuko Karasuma	...	Riichi's mother
Yûki Nagata	...	Riichi
Toshikazu Nakaba
Akihiro Shimizu	...	Nakamura
Matsunosuke Shofukutei	...	Riichi's grandfather
Saki Takaoka	...	Miss Itô
Naoto Takenaka	...	Riichi's father
Yoshinori Yasuda	...	Sada

Directed by
Takashi Miike

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Riichi Nakaba		novel
Masa Nakamura		screenplay

Produced by
Yasuhiko Furusato	....	producer
Masao Kimura	....	producer
Toshiaki Nakazawa	....	producer

Original Music by
Kôji Endô

Cinematography by
Hideo Yamamoto

Film Editing by
Yasushi Shimamura

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Bunmei Katô	....	assistant director

Sound Department
Yoshiya Obara	....	sound

Production Companies

• MMI
• Marubeni
• Sedic
• Shochiku Company
• Yoshimoto Kogyo Company

Distributors

• Artsmagic (US) Ltd. (2004) (USA) (DVD)
• Shochiku Company
• Siren Visual Entertainment (2006) (Australia) (DVD)

Also Known As:

"Young Thugs: Nostalgia" - USA (DVD title)

Runtime:

94 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Certification:

Australia:MA | New Zealand:R16 | Portugal:M/16

Company:

MMI

Movie Connections:

Follows Kishiwada shônen gurentai (1996)

Obscure gem

Until very recently this one's been hard to find outside of Japan and impossible to find with English subtitles, and it's remained quite obscure as a result. Now that a bootleg version of the Japanese DVD with subtitles has been made available this will change, and it's a good thing, because this is one of Miike's finest. There's little of the violence which some people mistakenly assume is a given in Miike's work, but the director's unique sense of humor and reductionist approach to storytelling are fully intact. It's almost a coming-of-age film, but the same could be said of any of the Dead or Alive films in regard to the yakuza genre, and it still wouldn't be true. Miike cuts everything but the guts of the story from his scripts. This film's most painful moment is not even there– just a cut to black. It hurts. Apparently Kishiwada Shonen Gurentai is a series (also known as Boys Be Ambitious, a phrase which will be familiar to anybody who payed close attention to the beginning of Gozu) which several directors have participated in, and Miike has directed another film in the series which or may or may not be adapted from the same novel as this entry.