Sunday 2 December 2012

Youth of the Beast [1963]


Shohei Imamura and Nagisa Oshima were arguably the most famous Japanese New Wave names, but the movement didn’t have a dearth of maverick filmmakers with voices of their own – Seijun Suzuki was one of them, and Youth of the Beast was the movie that served as the turning point in his journey as an auteur. Hitherto a maker of run-of-the-mill gangster films, Suzuki stamped his distinct signature and vision into a film for the first time in this gleefully wacky, delirious, stylized, hyper-kinetic, testosterone-driven, incredibly fun rehashing of the standard gangster film, and reminiscent of Yojimbo. Jo (Jo Shishoda), a mysterious, laconic, baby-faced, chipmunk-cheeked tough guy who beats the crap out of everybody without batting an eyelid, comes out of nowhere and becomes the top henchman for a powerful yakuza gang. Before long he makes contact with the rival gang surreptitiously, and becomes an informer for them. Jo, it seems, is a man utterly devoid of morals and scruples even for a gangster, and that he has only one boss, viz. money. But, things aren’t always what they seem, and the same is the case with him – as is gradually revealed, he has a different agenda altogether, and vengeance for the death of a friend, is his sole motive. Suzuki filled the film with a host of colourful characters, thumping action sequences, and a terrific dose of cool, machismo, wry humour, violence and vibrancy, making it an immensely enjoyable ride through the seedy underbelly of post-WWII Japanese society. The excellent, deliberately discordant jazz score, and the incessant sense of narrative urgency, brilliantly complemented the film’s loopy, anachronistic, burlesque tone.








Director: Seijun Suzuki
Genre: Crime Thriller/Gangster Film
Language: Japanese
Country: Japan

4 comments:

Sam Juliano said...

The excellent, deliberately discordant jazz score, and the incessant sense of narrative urgency, brilliantly complemented the film’s loopy, anachronistic, burlesque tone.

Indded Shubhajit! Great points, but the entire piece is infused with Suzuki appreciation! It does recall YOJIMBO and Oshima as well, but this is definitely the director's turning point as an auteur. Great use of humour too!

Andrea Ostrov Letania said...

Hell of a movie.

Shubhajit said...

@Sam:

Thank Sam. Despite the rather straight-forward skeleton of a gangster film, Suzuki infused it with such zany playfulness and wacky humour. I'm eagerly waiting to watch his 2 most famous films, viz. Tokyo Drifter & Branded to Kill.

Shubhajit said...

@Andrea:

Absolutely!!! :)