Kiyoshi is a brooding young man who treats women solely as objects. Makoto is a young woman who is just reaching her sexual awakening. She and her friends accept car rides from middle aged men, although they state it is nothing more than fun with no intention of leading those men on. Kiyoshi and Makoto meet when he saves her from one of those middle aged men who tries to take advantage of her. Despite treating each other abusively, they start a relationship with each other which leads to what they call love, but feels more like an emotional dependence on each other to rebel against traditional society. Each with no money, they start to extort money from these middle aged men who she leads on. This act is only one demonstration of the only power they feel they have, namely sex, which they use against others as well as against each other in their doomed relationship.
This movie tells the story of two youths who suffer from the social malaise typical of their generation and how self destructive young people can be. They express their frustration in violent and poetic ways, which makes up the substance of the movie’s narrative. But putting all that aside, by it’s end it’s also completely heartwrenching. Besides following a good storyline, it is also well-shot. The cinematography is crisp. The overall nature of the photography gives the movie a fantastic quality. It’s gritty, and obviously seeks to be realistic, but it has the feel of a fable or a morality tale. At times it has the sensibility of a yakuza movie – violence abounds and the director gives 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 movie. It shows love as the cruelest thing imaginable, making it difficult to watch at times, but in the end, impossible to forget.
Sadako’s Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5
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