Furyô shônen

This is a very good film reminiscent of Truffaut's 400 BLOWS and Bunuel's LOS OLVIDADOS. The cast is made up of actual juvenile delinquents and the authenticity shows. The kids have no trouble playing themselves. Unfortunately the video that makes the rounds in the U.S. is very bad quality, suffering from the dreaded white subtitles lost in white background phenomena. It might be worth waiting for a film festival or revival screening. Takemitsu's score isn't as distinctive as his better known works, but it's still nice. A very light score representing care free youthfulness.

From the director of the equally brilliant, "Nanami: Inferno of First Love," comes this fine docudrama about life in a boys reform school outside Tokyo. Shot on stark, beautiful black & White film stock, the camera follows a boy as he first enters the prison-like compound, rebellious and angry at the system and society. The viewer then sees his experiences that led up to his incarceration, through a series of very powerful flashbacks. We see him as a little boy, roaming the street, starving, until he finds a car with some food in it, as well as a pair of sunglasses, that he sells to a beautiful girl in a nightclub. She takes him home and gives him a bath and he wonders why someone would be nice to him. Other scenes showing the boys robbing innocent people on the street, are sad and depressing, but they always express feelings of remorse after their crimes, which shows that there is hope for their future. And those b/w shots of neon-lit Tokyo are wonderful and stark. The city is portrayed here, as a playground for the boys, as they roam the street like a pack of hyenas, terrorizing anyone who catches their eye. Throughout the film we see the protagonist slowly change from an angry, violent kid, into a young adult that just might succeed in the world beyond the walls of the reform school. There is not one moment of insincerity or corny sentimentality throughout this fine picture, which possesses the style of the French New Wave films of the early 60's. Unlike the other reviewer here, I was able to find a beautiful quality print with excellent subtitles, and can definitely see this rare title being picked up by Criterion or Kino, as it deserves to be resurrected for a new generation. "Furyo Shonen," or "Bad Boys" is a great film that deals with the subject of juvenile delinquency. Also recommended is the Serbian film called "Special Education," another unjustly forgotten film about troubled youth. Highly recommended.