Passions juvéniles

What starts as a young adults at the beach, coming of age story slowly devolves into a morality tale rooted in an overused love-triangle plot device. This time it involves two brothers vying for the same woman. What lifts this one above the rest are the technical elements.

The direction is solid. The lighting and cinematography are wonderful, especially the moonlit scenes. The cast does a great job, with the female lead giving a shining performance. The subtle ukulele-driven, Hawaiian-inspired soundtrack provides the perfect moodiness; and the costuming deserves a shout-out.

Of the "Sun Tribe" movies I've seen, this one feels the most Hollywood-ish. I realize that the infiltration of Western culture into post-war Japan was a major theme in Japanese cinema for a while, but this film feels like it actually exhibits more of stereotypically Hollywood style.

I anticipated the explosive ending; however, it still provided a fantastic jolt!

This movie will fool you into thinking that its a story about something far more innocent that it actually is... im being vague so as to not give away any of the fun details. I don't know how to put it except to say that I really enjoyed the ride it took my heart on... first I was grinning stupidly at a tale of young love and by the end I had to pause for a moment to realize that my face was contorted in all sorts of disbelief and horror.... awesome!!!

One of the things I enjoy about this movie is that the true villains don't make much of an appearance. Its the character's own spoiled and frivolous lifestyles handed to them by their parents and sexual exploitation by foreigners that ruin these characters long before they ruin each other.

When the mother says, "don't hang out with your brother and his friends, they are horrible brutes etc etc" to which the boy replies "well,you raised him." In the movie this was a joke, and the characters allhad a nice chuckle... but that was the most serious point the story conveyed - the capitalist dream imploding - cuz lets face it, if you have everything you want, you're probably going to be bored and miserable.

In the same way, the very young very beautiful Hari marries the old white curr for his money, but realizes she's lost the most important thing, something priceless, her childhood innocence.

In my interpretation, its not the evil within these characters that leads to their undoing, its the evil they were subjected to. I want to believe there's good in them, and the actors do a brilliant job of keeping us wondering and uncertain about that because of the extremely nuanced and balanced performances.

The actors who play the brothers are brilliant, the younger especially, who has a very understated but creepy air about him...

In the end, all i can say is "bone chilling!!!" haha... watch it.

Some of the negative reviews posted do not understand the historical significance of this film (obviously young viewers). You just can't compare it to coming of age films today. This portrayal of Japanese youth in the mid 1950s (ten years after the end of the war) was so shocking to Japanese audiences that the older generation often walked out on the film. As a matter of fact, no American movie at that time could show this type of adultery and sexual pleasure in a film. This movie was loved by Truffaut and very much resembles a French new wave film.

This is the first movie I've seen starring Yujiro Ishihara. I've heard something about the culture him and his brother Shintaro represented in the '50s, but it was way before my time, and I had no idea what this cultural phenomena was about in the '50s Japan. It's nice to find that Criterion Collection have revived this masterpiece.

Writer of this movie - Shintaro Ishihara made his debut as a writer with the novel "Season of the Sun" which described the decadent lifestyle of the affluent youth of Japan a year before this movie was made. The youth culture depicted in this novel was called "Sun Tribe", and in this movie Haruji (Masahiko Tsugawa) has a line where he describes his older brother and friends "They call folks like you the Sun Tribe.". Shintaro's younger brother Yujiro Ishihara plays the role of Haruji's elder brother Natsuhisa in this movie.

Basically, it's about the culture of the affluent set in Japan, but the genius of Shintaro Ishihara was that he already saw through the facade of shallow life style such living can bring and put it down in a novel which was both entertaining, and with style no one had written previously. Such an awesome insight from a person who is still in his early 20s.

The casting of this movie reads like who's who of young actors who went on to support mainstream Japanese cinema, and TV dramas for the next 20 years. This movie is also the debut movie for actor Masahiko Tsugawa who we see frequently in today's movie from Japan. He was called in by Shintaro after Shintaro spotted him at a wedding. Shintaro described that Tsugawa left an indelible impression on him when he first saw him.

Not too many people can stay in forefront of society for over 50 years influencing the course of that society, but Shintaro Ishihara has done just that as he is the present mayor of Tokyo.

Actress Mie Kitahara who played Eri, and Yujiro Ishihara marries four years later, this movie bringing the two together.

I've heard that Shintaro was abolished for writing decadent lifestyle of youth when his first novel Taiyo no Kisetsu (also made into movie in '56) came out, but actually I think this is a movie all youth should see as a warning not to indulge in this type of behavior, as it was the point with Shintaro's writing as well. This movie is written masterfully with all the critical points placed in its right place.

If you watch this movie without the background information of Japan in the '50s, it may appear as few spoiled kids having a wild time, but the true insight of this movie goes much deeper than that. Highly recommended.

The title "Crazed Fruit" probably has different connotations in Japanese...but in English, the title seems to suggest the viewer is in for a trashy entertainment. In fact, "Crazed Fruit" is a brilliant, thoughtful, and powerful film.

The film succeeds through its strong writing and strong performances. The director seems to have a clear vision for the film -- unusual, considering it was his debut feature.

What gives "Crazed Fruit" its depth and richness is the subtlety of the plot and performances. The film ends in tragedy, but this outcome has its origins in ordinary, minor human flaws that anyone could identify with. The three main characters' weaknesses combine in a particularly unfortunate way, to produce a spectacularly bad result. The younger brother is blameless and pure in his desire to know true love; the older brother is understandably overcome by the strength of his feelings of love and passion; the girl is blameness in her desire to experience an innocent and powerful form of love. Yet together, the three work to bring about disaster.

Highly recommended.