I know that many consider this film to be a classic and my very low score will most likely trigger a lot of "not helpful" votes, but I just didn't like this film at all. I understand that the film is in many ways a Japanese film version of the important French film BREATHLESS, but like BREATHLESS, the leading characters are so unpleasant I had a hard time sticking with the film--though with THE CRUEL STORY OF YOUTH the characters a lot more unpleasant and slimy.

The girl is an idiot high schooler who slavishly follows after a college student who treats her like garbage. He rapes her twice at the beginning of the film and in return, she devotes herself to him!! The guy, in addition to being a rapist, is a violent user. The loves to fight and sleep around and does little to hide it from the girl. Considering that neither seem to ever go to class and don't have jobs, they earn money by setting up men to try to rape the girl--at which point the guy jumps out and beats up the men and takes their money. It sounds like a match made in heaven, right?! So why make the American title of the film "THE CRUEL STORY OF YOUTH"? What's cruel about the story--both characters choose to be evil and choose their fates. It isn't like they are somehow victims (though the film does try to paint it that way). Their lives are pointless and selfish. Rape, abortion, extortion, indifference--after a short time I found myself getting very tired of the whole thing and, oddly, when the film had it's supposed sad ending, I was thrilled! I say good riddance and bring me a film I can care about--not this nihilistic and nasty little film.

I liked seeing a raw, edgy, uninhibited side of Japan, and director Nagisa Oshima's style which mirrored the French New Wave directors from this period whom he admired. I liked the nice cuts and shots he captured, the rock and jazz music in the soundtrack, and his unflinching look at the cynicism present in Japan following WWII. There are some who relate it to "Rebel Without a Cause", but I don't like the comparison, because "Cruel Story of Youth" is over-the-top in its darkness and nihilism, none of the characters are likable, and one doesn't get any sense of the 'tragic, misunderstood, disaffected youth' or feel empathy towards them. There's also not enough content which relates their delinquent behavior to their upbringing or the times which would allow us to see it as an indictment of society.

You could say all this darkness is because life in Japan after the war was far darker than America, and while there is some truth to that, the film's biggest problem is the cruelty towards women which pervades it. You'll see attempted rape, rape (twice),attempted forced prostitution, an extortion scheme that involves using a woman as bait in dangerous situations, using women young and old as sex objects without any feeling, and utter indifference to abortion from a surprise pregnancy. Cruel story, indeed. The lead female character is shockingly stupid. There are some characters in films who are just stupid, regardless of their sex, but this is part of a larger theme. The film is all about in-your-face rebellion in its content, frankness, and even style (which I ordinarily love) – and yet how sad is that Oshima perpetuates the (very traditional) theme of misogyny. It's the combination of this and the general unlikeability of the whole thing that tempers my review score to an average rating, for what is such a landmark film from a talented director.

See Cruel Story of Youth. It is an amazing film. Oshima Nagisa is probably best known for his avant garde work- films like "In the Realm of the Senses" and "Diary of a Shinjuku Thief"- but his earlier work is more compelling, if less sensational. This film tells the story of Makoto and Kiyoshi, two youths who suffer from the social malaise typical of their generation. They express their frustration in violent and poetic ways, which makes up the substance of the film's narrative. But putting all that aside, it's beautifully filmed and by it's end, completely heartwrenching. The color contrast is almost unprecedented- bright reds and blues set against pitch blacks. At times it has the sensibility of a yakuza film- violence abounds and Oshima makes use of sharp pans typical of that genre, giving it a very cool, retro feel. At it's core it's a love story, but of a sort that modern audiences will probably never see in a contemporary film. It shows love as the cruelest thing imaginable, making it difficult to watch at times, but in the end, impossible to forget.