Yaju no Seishun

Youth of the Beast
The Brute

Japan 1963
produced by
Keinosuke Kubo, Yoshio Muto for Nikkatsu
directed by Seijun Suzuki
starring Jo Shishido, Akiji Kobayashi, Tamio Kawaji, Misako Watanabe, Eimei Esumi, Kinzo Shin, Eiji Go, Seijun Suzuki, Ichiro Kijima, Nobuo Kaneko, Shiro Yanase, Hiroshi Kono, Yuzo Kiura, Go Kuroda, Tomio Aoki, Masao Shimizu, Kosuke Hisamatsu, Hiroshi Takao, Yuriko Abe, Kensuke Akashi, Yasuo Itoga, Minako Kozuki, Gen Mihama
screnplay by Ichiro Ikeda, Tadaaki Yamazaki, based on the novel by Haruhiko Oyabu, music by Hajime Okumura

review by
Mike Haberfelner

Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned)   CLICK HERE to buy from Japanese language, English subtitles Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!

Jo (Jo Shishido) manages to get a job with the Nomoto gang because he has proved himself ruthless, violent, and handy with all kinds of weapons. However, it soon becomes clear that he is after more than just a job with good pay, because he asks an awful lot of questions about the big bos of his organisation, who might be Tatsuo Nomoto (Akiji Kobayashi), his violent half-brother Hideo (Tamio Kawachi), or some mystery woman.

Eventually, Jo hooks up with Onodero (Kinzo Shin), boss of a rival gang, and offers his services as informer, but it soon becomes clear that he only want to cause a gang war between Onodero's gang and the Nomoto clan. After one of Nomoto's drug deals goes wrong thanks to Onodero, bits and pieces about Jo's past are found out, like the fact that he has been a cop until recently - but also that he has spent the last three years in prison. The prison time convinces Nomoto and gang that Jo is one of theirs, but what they don't know is that Jo is actually investigating the death of his partner Takeshita (Ichiro Kijima), who is said to have committed suicide, but Jo suspects it was murder, and someone in Nomoto's organisation was behind it all.

When Jo's best friend among Nomoto's men, Minami (Eimei Esumi) is injured in a fight with Onodero's men, he drags him to the house of Takeshita's wife (Misako Watanabe) to hide him, and once there tells her how he's planning to find out the truth about her husband's death. Soon after, Nomoto tells him he has been fond out, and they know everything about his motives. Nomoto and company now want to torture and kill him, but Jo eventually wins the upper hand and tortures the truth about both nomoto and his brother Hideo - and finds out the woman behind everything was actually Takeshita's wife, from day one on. Not wanting to kill her himself, he lures her into a trap and waits for hideo to kill her, then lets the police take care of the rest.

On a pure story level, this is a routine crime film, solid but hardly remarkable, and featuring a few too many plottwists to remain wholly believable. On a visual level though, this film is something else, a carefully orchestrated work of art full of unusual camera angles, extraordinary setups, colourful pictures, weird details and the like - in other words, this is a typical film from director Seijun Suzuki's early years: not one of his masterpieces he would later become famous for but a quirky piece of genre entertainment that might not be perfect, but it doesn't disappoint.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

Feeling lucky? Want to search any of my partnershops yourself for more, better results? (commissions earned)

The links below will take you just there!!!

Find Youth of the Beast at the amazons ...   amazon.com   amazon.co.uk   amazon.de Looking for imports? Find Youth of the Beast here ...   eThaiCD.com Your shop for all things Thai

Thanks for watching !!!