| Cruel Story of Youth | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Nagisa Oshima |
| Produced by | Shochiku |
| Written by | Nagisa Oshima |
| Starring | Yusuke Kawazu Miyuki Kuwano |
| Music by | Riichiro Manabe |
| Distributed by | Shochiku |
| Release date(s) | 1960 |
| Running time | 96 min. |
| Country | ‹See Tfd› Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
Cruel Story of Youth (青春残酷物語 Seishun Zankoku Monogatari) (1960), was the second film directed by Nagisa Oshima.
Oshima, who was only 28 at the time, made extensive use of hand-held cameras and location shooting, and the results drew comparisons to the French nouvelle vague filmmakers emerging at around the same time; the film became one of the primary films in the Nuberu bagu.
The use of adolescent criminals as protagonists generated controversy at the time, though the film was also a commercial success, which helped to pave the way for the emergence of a young and adventurous generation of new Japanese filmmakers: in short order, Shohei Imamura, Masahiro Shinoda, Yasuzo Masumura, Susumu Hani, Hiroshi Teshigahara and others began to attract international attention. In this film, Oshima was already beginning to explore the themes he would soon become celebrated for: a focus on youth and on 'outsiders', and critical deconstructions of more stereotypical imagery in Japanese cinema.
Cruel Story of Youth was the first of three films Oshima completed in 1960; it was followed by The Sun's Burial and Night and Fog in Japan.
Characters [link]
- Yasuke Kawazu—Kiyoshi Fujii
- Miyuki Kuwano—Mako Shinjo
- Yoshiko Kuga—Yuki, Makoto's elder
- Fumio Watanabe—Akimoto
- Shinji TanakaYoshimi—Ito, student
- Shinjiro Matsuzaki—Terada
- Toshiko Kobayashi—Teruko Shimonishi
Sources [link]
- Donald Richie. 100 Years Of Japanese Cinema, 2003, Kodansha.
- Joan Mellen. The Waves At Genji's Door: Japan Through Its Cinema, 1975, Pantheon.
- Tadao Sato. Currents In Japanese Cinema, 1982, Kodansha.
- "青春残酷物語 (Seishun Zankoku Monogatari)" (in Japanese). Japanese Movie Database. https://www.jmdb.ne.jp/1960/cj002680.htm. Retrieved 2007-07-13.
External links [link]
https://wn.com/Cruel_Story_of_Youth
Podcasts:
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by Edgewater
Story Of...
by: EdgewaterYour evil eyes with your glass shaped prize
You smell of smoke with your dirty clothes
We're all afraid of your twelve-step stage
You lose control and you won't let go
You say we're weak, but you can't even speak
You scream your words and they don't flow
Your killer rage feels so much pain
You're one last tick of a time bomb
And I'll someday I will
Bleed the story of
The times you took from me
And I will bleed the story of
The youth you wasted me
I finalize that one last time I've gone away and found my home
You feel ashamed for the life you claim
We've said goodbye and you're all alone
You compromise with the letters you write
But ink is dry and we're way too strong
You give a rose for the stones you've thrown
And that's a shame 'cause you're to late
And I run on, run on, run on, run on out
'Cause I don't want to be that way
Running from the things I've seen running from the name of shame
My silver eyes with my brand new life
The memory stays as I go on
And all the seams that were ripped from me have bound their strands
And I'll do no harm
And someday I'll find a way to trade that pain
And all that's wrong about a man who raised his hand