Naked Youth (1960) ( Seishun zankoku monogatari ) ( A Story of the Cruelties of Youth )

Naked Youth (1960) (Blu-Ray) (*)

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Original Title: Seishun zankoku monogatari
Alternate Title: A Story of the Cruelties of Youth
Screened, competed or awarded at:
Other Film Festival Awards

Language Selections:
English ( Subtitles )
Japanese ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )

Product Origin/Format:
United Kingdom ( Blu-Ray/Region B )

Running Time:
96 min

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen (2.35:1)

Special Features:
Cast/Crew Interview(s)
Interactive Menu
Photo Gallery
Scene Access
Trailer(s)
Booklet
Blu-Ray & DVD Combo

Movie filmed in 1960 and produced in:
Japan ( India, Eastern Asia )

Directed By:
Nagisa Oshima

Written By:
Nagisa Oshima

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

Synopsis:

This second feature by the Japanese cinema-insurgent Nagisa Ôshima (In the Realm of the Senses, Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence) galvanised its home-turf with its topsy-turvy directorial dexterity and stinging castigation of an indolent, self-indulgent youth culture reposing on the eve of the turbulent 1960s. When high-schooler Makoto is saved from the advances of a lecherous middle-aged man by uni student Kiyoshi, the pair embark on a fits-and-starts affair that finally settles into a sexually extortionary, mutually exploitative dependency that promises to spell their relationship's doom. Ôshima's breakthrough portrait of alienated youth comes courtesy of the 2014 Shochiku 4K scan that resurrected the film's glorious color palette, recently described by critic and programmer James Quandt as "running riot with retro: pulsing neon, turquoise telephones, hair teased into shellacked grandeur."

Nagisa Oshima's groundbreaking film opens with young, attractive Mako and her friend hitching a ride from an old man. After her friend leaves, the man tries to rape her, and she is saved only by the handsome Kiyoshi. Later, against the background of the tumultuous 1960 U.S./Japan Security Treaty demonstrations, Kiyoshi and Mako walk along a grungy seaside lumberyard while talking about sex. He attempts to kiss her, she slaps him, and he throws her in the water. She cries out that she can't swim. When she continues to refuse his advances, he steps on her fingers as she clings to a log. Kiyoshi then saves Mako from a trio of seedy pimps looking to impress her into working for them, but after rescuing her, he forces himself on her again. With this unlikely beginning, Kiyoshi and Mako form a passionate though doomed romance. Soon she stops going to school and moves into his flea-ridden dive of an apartment. Utterly disillusioned with all trappings of societal convention, the two get cash by blackmailing businessmen and by shaking down Kiyoshi's middle-aged sugarmama. Tension with this Bonnie and Clyde duo builds after Mako has an abortion in a run down clinic, performed by an alcoholic doctor.

Story of the ordeals of a seduced girl student, ending in tragedy.

This product was added to our catalog on Tuesday 19 April, 2016.

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