When getting the works of Seijun Suzuki in order of release for viewing, I somehow kept mixing this one up for Tokyo Knights (1961-also reviewed) due to both of them being two worded titles! Eventually getting them in the correct order,I went to meet the teen Yakuza.

View on the film:

Closing the first disc in the first box set, Arrow present a very good transfer,with the print only having the occasional thin lines appearing, and the soundtrack kept clean.

Returning to filming in black and white along with going back to build upon his gritty, youthful Film Noir era, directing auteur Seijun Suzuki makes a huge progression in his eye for shooting in outdoor locations with outstanding deep space scope staging for the final fight sequence, hit by the long, deep scope panning down the hillside as Jiro (played by a debonair Tamio Kawaji) is slammed into the dirt.

Entering a hip Jazz club with a toe-tapping number that gets everyone's feet swaying (a major regular recurring setting and visual motif of Suzuki) Suzuki is joined by cinematographer Kenji Hagiwara and his regular editor Akira Suzuki, who he closely works with to build on his distinctive stylisation, via tracking Jiro's attempts to clean the streets of Ota with fluid zoom-ins, slick panning shots across the dance floor, and hard jump-cuts keeping Jiro's fights on a knife edge.

Set in the city of Ota that sits between Tokyo and Yokohama, the screenplay by Mamoru Okusono & Nozomu Yoshimura reflect the location by fittingly place Jiro between the Sun Tribe teen flicks and the rough edge of Film Noir, as the pure youthful exuberance Jiro displays in keeping the streets safe, is tainted by a growing, regretful awareness of receiving underhanded payouts from shopkeepers to keep their stores safe, as Jiro looks out across the city and sees the arrival of the teenage Yakuza.

IMDb categorizes this early Seijun Suzuki feature as 'Action, Crime', but there are also elements of comedy and some rock 'n roll interludes, too. In fact, it's easy to imagine the 72-minute long Teenage Yakuza being an AIP vehicle with John Ashley playing an aspiring street punk - the only difference being that Suzuki filmed in widescreen, whereas Edward L. Cahn was generally an Academy ratio kind guy. As in most Suzuki films, there's a disabled character to remind us of life's general unfairness. That said, Nagisa Oshima's Cruel Story of Youth this ain't.