Youth of the Beast

In the organizer's words:

野獣の青春 Yajû no seishun

Director: SUZUKI Seijun
1963, 91 minutes, OmeU, color, 35 mm

This film is a milestone in Suzuki Seijun's oeuvre, made during the heyday of Nikkatsu action films. As one of the most important and largest film productions in Japan after the Second World War, Nikkatsu concentrated on hard action flicks and dramas for predominantly young people, featuring the most popular actors of the time. These titles marked Nikkatsu's heyday and also brought the studio a high international reputation.

The former policeman and hard-boiled hero named Jô, played by the star of the time Shishido Jô, has just been released from prison and is out for revenge. The pugnacious, charismatic character joins a rival yakuza gang responsible for the death of his former partner. He wants to bring them down by any means necessary.

Movie series
In search of criminals and new images - Japanese films from the 1960s

In the 1960s and 1970s, Japan was in a phase of economic, political and social upheaval, which also had a serious impact on the country's film industry. As a counter-movement to the films of the previously established master directors, works emerged that were in part radically new in their themes and aesthetics and moved beyond the existing pigeonholes.

With seven films made between 1958 and 1968, this series provides an insight into the cinema of the 1960s and presents works by five directors who were among the most important representatives of their time: Imamura Shôhei (1926-2006), Nomura Yoshitarô (1919-2005), Shindô Kaneto (1912-2012), Shinoda Masahiro (*1931) and Suzuki Seijun (1923-2017).

Three Nikkatsu action films by Suzuki Seijun, who is considered an experimental visionary in Japanese film history, can be seen. In his first color film, Imamura Shôhei dissects the archaic relationships of a village community marked by incest. Shindô Kaneto is represented with his impressive global success about the adversities of life. Finally, the crime film by Nomura Yoshitarô shows the dramatic chase after a murderer and with his film noir, Shinoda Masahiro has left a lasting mark on the yakuza thriller genre.

Price information:

Admission free