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Seishun zankoku monogatari (Naked Youth)



cast :

Yusuke Kawazu, Miyuki Kuwano, Yoshiko Kuga, Fumio Watanabe

crew :

Directed by: Nagisa Oshima
Written by: Nagisa Oshima
Produced by: Tomio Ikeda
DOP: Takashi Kawamata
Editor: Keiichi Uraoka
Music Score by: Riichiro Manabe

release date :

1960

Nagisa Oshima released ‘Naked Youth’ in 1960; five years after James Dean graced worldwide screens in ‘Rebel Without a Cause’ (1955). Both tackled the delicate subject of the difficulties facing the first generation of children to grow up after World War II, feeling lost and displaced in a world where society did not know what to offer. Frequently compared, ‘Naked Youth’ shares many similarities with ‘Rebel Without a Cause’, but whereas ‘Rebel Without a Cause’ presents the story in a very linear fashion, leaving an optimistic ending, ‘Naked Youth’ does quite the opposite.


The reasons for rebellious youth behaviour in the years following the Second World War have been attributed to the inability of parents to maintain a functioning family unit. James Gilbert noted that ‘Americans looked at the family with double vision: with optimism and despair’ (Another Chance: Post-war America 1945-1968, Random House,1988). The idea of ‘family’ had been destroyed with the loss of so many lives and the disruption of working life during the wartime years. By 1960, the post-war generation were coming of age in a world where parents no longer knew what to offer. As Makoto’s father states in Oshima’s continuation of the taiyozoku genre - ‘Times were hard after the war…we were reborn as a democratic nation, that responsibility went hand in hand with freedom…But today what can we say to this child? What have we to offer?’ It is through ‘Naked Youth’ that Oshima expresses the disillusion of the leftist humanism and the despair of the right. By looking at ‘Naked Youth’ in reference to ‘Rebel Without a Cause’, the differing ways in which the two-tackle similar cultural concerns are emphasised.


Oshima’s harsh, and arguably more realistic, take on youth ‘Oshima is crueler than most as he shows peer pressure and cynicism [as] more powerful than love’ as Tony McKibbin notes.


Where ‘Rebel Without a Cause’ promises redemption in love, ‘Naked Youth’ condemns it. Whereas ‘Rebel Without a Cause’s’ protagonist, Jim (James Dean), courts his love interest from afar, Kyoshi (Yusuke Kawazu), ‘Naked Youth’s’ protagonist, forces himself upon his, nearly killing her and successfully raping her on their first date. So desperate is she for excitement and love, she remains with him, only hours later asking if he loves her – ‘sure I do’ he replies idly. Shortly afterwards he ignores her in an attempt to get rid of her for ‘no particular reason’. In the couple’s final scene together, Kyoshi confirms Makoto’s (Miyuki Kuwano) love for him (which is the only time he asks her if she loves him) before abandoning her and they each walk to their own grisly death. If love is anything in ‘Naked Youth’ it is a curse. Despite being convinced at times that Kyoshi has truly developed feelings for Makoto, these feelings are conveyed in an abstract way. One instance shows Kyoshi unexpectedly turning up to meet her and consequently saves her from a band of thugs. Defending her and getting himself into a fight far more brutal than Jim’s knife fight, he then proceeds to rape her as the thugs depart. When asking why he did this to her, Kyoshi can summon no response, suggesting that he himself has no more idea why he did it than Makoto. For every redeeming action Kyoshi imparts, he undoes quickly after.


When Makoto’s schoolteacher calls her in to discuss her new relationship, she comments on how Yuki’s (Makoto’s older sister played by Yoshiko Kuga) young love excited them, even though they never even held hands. She says “I guess that youths in our days were too timid…I suppose girls nowadays will live with a man” displaying an immense amount of naivety at the state in which Makoto, and presumably others of her age, are living. Calling the older generation ‘timid’ denotes acceptability for Makoto’s activities. It enhances the feeling of envy that the older generation have for the younger, when they are completely oblivious to the real horrific state of youth.


Indeed Akimoto (Yuki’s old lover played by Fumio Watanabe) stresses this when discussing his youth, commenting ‘we were young, we made many mistakes…we tried - the wall stayed firm…in our impatience we did things that hurt each other’. Yuki and Akimoto had taken part in student protests in an attempt to ‘make the world [their] own’ which, as a result, ‘twisted’ their love. The different attitude they held in comparison to Makoto and Kyoshi is glaring. The younger couple have no interest in protesting, instead they would rather make their own life, ignorant of anyone else. Akimoto acknowledges this, saying how Makoto fights by indulging her every desire, yet it is still futile. ‘Is there something I can do if I can’t be in love?’ Yuki asks, stressing the importance placed on love in society and the fact that the country has become so devoid of it. Oshima sums this up in one line given by Yuki - ‘soon passion will die, and misery will remain’ – here he speaks more about the political situation of Japan than he does of love itself.


Stephen Thomson has commented that in ‘Naked Youth’ ‘the older generations are every bit as clueless and compromised as the younger and, one way or another, fund their misdemeanors’ (www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk). It is this attitude that explains the lack of parental figures in Naked Youth. Makoto’s father is useless in trying to discipline his child, seemingly uninterested in trying, while her mother is nowhere to be seen. In her stead is Yuki, Makoto’s older sister, who is resentful of her younger sibling for being allowed to live such a frivolous life. At one point she says she ‘envies her’, not knowing her sister is being raped and pimped to please her boyfriend and fund her own abortion. At one point Yuki angrily asks their father ‘Why didn’t you treat me that way? You couldn’t stand up against mother’ There are strong similarities here with ‘Rebel Without a Cause’ where the mother is an overbearing presence who controls the will of the father with ease. Both parents in this instance are ridiculously irresponsible, Carol (Jim’s mother played by Ann Doran) wanting to move to a new house and run away as soon as any sign of trouble appears, while Frank (Jim Backus) simply does what he’s told and is of no use to anyone. During a row as to whether Jim should turn himself into the police or not, Jim asks for his father’s support against his mother saying ‘Dad let me hear you answer her’ instead, Frank can only hide his head in his hands. Where Jim strives to get a response from his dad and continually hopes his father will come through, Makoto doesn’t even ask. She looks to herself for answers and, mistakenly, Kyoshi - who, like Jim’s father, has nothing useful to offer. Whereas Frank causes Jim to fall into a state of frenzied frustration culminating in Jim‘s attempted strangulation of his father, Kyoshi’s contribution to Makoto’s life is far faster and more frequently violent.


Not one relationship in ‘Naked Youth’ is pure. Makoto’s friend is being cheated on by her boyfriend, and Kyoshi is sleeping with a middle aged, married woman while living with Makoto. In one symbolic scene, where Kyoshi is in bed with his older lover, a close up follows the woman’s hand as it slides down the side of his naked body. The camera seems less interested in her hand than it is on the ring that adorns her wedding finger. Flicking between this and the expressionless face of Kyoshi, it is abundantly clear that there is no passion, no love, to this affair. Whilst the older woman corrupts the younger generation, she allows him to mar the older, encouraging infidelity and promiscuity. The only character who promises any redemption is Horio (Kan Nihonyanagi), an old gentleman who Makoto plans to set up so Kyoshi can rob him. Struck by his kind words on their journey home, she forfeits the robbery and lets him go. When the two meet later by accident, they go to his house to drink. Despite Horio’s offer to call a taxi to take her home, Makoto, now considerably drunk, she stays overnight and the two have sex. Although Horio initially shows promise - and is by far the closest there is to a redeeming character in the film - even he cannot be a full representative of morality, sleeping with a girl young enough to be his daughter and who is considerably drunk as a result of his invitation.


The devastating effects that the older generation has on the younger is epitomised through Akimoto ‘simple operation’ on Makoto. As a doctor who finds it hard to make enough money as ‘patients rarely pay’ he takes odd jobs on the side. Makoto’s abortion is one of them. Her baby, the symbol of new life and a chance to make a family afresh is thwarted first by Kyoshi’s adamant decision to get rid of it, and then physically finalised by Akimoto’s hand. He rips hope away from the young couple, and, on confronting Kyoshi outside the police station later says ‘it is our fault as much as yours’, acknowledging the older generations’ part in the younger’s downfall.


David Steritt describes the youth in Oshima’s merciless film as ‘simultaneously victims of a heartless society and villains who perpetuate its callousness’ whilst they themselves are ‘no more important than the failings of the culture in which they live’ (www.tcm.com) This is true of both couples in ‘Rebel Without a Cause’ and ‘Naked Youth’. Both live in a disrupted society, yet their actions only serve to contribute to and enhance this state. Despite not wanting to, Jim participates in a knife fight and later puts up no defense at all when challenged to take part in a ‘chicken run’, resulting in the death of another student. He singles himself out on his first day at school by walking over the school emblem, immediately drawing the distain of the surrounding students. However, where Jim differs is in his determination to understand. Constantly asking questions and striving to find answers, he does his best to avoid fights and actively wants to turn himself into the police for his part in the death of Buzz. It is his parents who offer no reply and no help. Kyoshi and Makoto do not ask these questions. Caught up in a society so devoid of pleasure, they subject themselves to various activities in order to find their thrills. Never do they question the morality of what they do. Makoto does struggle at one point, on discovery of her pregnancy, to understand Kyoshi, and his willingness to continue to cheat rich men out of their money using her as bait, calling him ‘brutal’ for encouraging men to look on her with lust while she carries his child inside. That does not stop her then sleeping with another man the same night, whom Kyoshi then confronts and demands payment from. Their society is devoid of pleasure, but they actively and willingly participate in ensuring it remains that way. Where Jim has the chance to redeem himself and look to the future, Kyoshi and Makoto are simultaneously killed as a direct result of their irresponsible actions.


Entitled in Japan ‘The Cruel Story of Youth’ Oshima’s identity of ‘Youth as victims of contradiction’ (David Steritt) is presented directly here. Whereas Jim and Judy share a late-evening chat and a light kiss on their first moment alone, Makoto is slapped and raped on hers. Both result in love, one temporary and one suggesting permanence (though we are never sure). Viewing ‘Naked Youth’ in parallel to ‘Rebel Without a Cause’ the latter looks romanticized and idealistic, making America’s worries look pitiful in comparison to those of Japanese youth. Oshima wanted the film to focus on ‘the cruelty of contemporary Japan’ (ibid) and that it does most wonderfully. The iconic jacket of James Dean, the misunderstood hero, is mimicked in ‘Naked Youth’, worn by the leader of the thug gang that tries to buy Makoto off Kyoshi - a statement on Oshima’s view on ‘Rebel Without a Cause’? Maybe, or maybe it’s just a coincidence. Either way the very different representations of post war youth complement each other in highlighting the uncertainty and severity of reaching adulthood in the post war years in two very different societies.


Watch


Country: Japan
Budget: £
Length: 92mins


Filmography:
‘Rebel Without a Cause’, 1955, Nicholas Ray, Warner Bros. Pictures


Pub/2008


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American Beauty, 1999, directed by Sam Mendes
Irma Vep, 1996, directed by Olivier Assayas
Irreversible, 2002, directed by Gaspar Noe