Cruel Story of Youth

A scorching tale of toxic love in a toxic world, Nagisa Oshima’s second feature film marked the artistic breakthrough of one of the most radical voices in the history of Japanese cinema. Caught in the dog-eat-dog crucible of postwar Tokyo, teenage lovers Makoto (Miyuki Kuwano) and Kiyoshi (Yusuke Kawazu) turn to a life of crime, entrapping lecherous middle-aged men in order to extort their money. But how long can the wayward youths outrun their fate? Bursting with vivid color, this visually scintillating, furiously nihilistic film howls with rage at a society in which everything—love, sex, and youthful idealism—has been corrupted.