Review of Cruel Story of Youth (1960) by Walter M — 27 Sep 2008
[font=Century Gothic]"Cruel Story of Youth" starts innocently enough with Mako(Miyuki Kuwano) trying to secure a ride home. However, things go badly when the driver, a middle-aged man, takes her instead to a hotel and attempts to molest her. Luckily, Kiyoshi(Yusuke Kawazu) comes to her rescue and even takes some of the attacker's money for his trouble. The next day with some of that ill-earned money, they rent a motorboat, followed by sex(which I'm assuming is consensual). They fall in love but have no money to support themselves. So they hatch a plan to extort money from other middle-aged men...[/font].
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[font=Century Gothic]Written and directed by Nagisa Oshima, "Cruel Story of Youth" is a deeply cynical movie that denigrates the youth of Japan at the time the movie was made. By showing footage from a demonstration in South Korea and comparing it to a less impressive one in Tokyo, Oshima is meant to be showing how apathetic this generation is about the country they live in.(Mind my ignorance but what exactly were the issues of the time?) It is their parents' generation who beat themselves up for not changing anything for their offspring who are just happy to hang out and have sex.[/font].
This review of Cruel Story of Youth (1960) was written by Walter M on 27 Sep 2008.
Cruel Story of Youth has generally received positive reviews.
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