CRUEL STORY OF YOUTH

In this Japanese potboiler a predatory young stud and his foolish would-be girlfriend take the fast road to self-annihilation. Before I saw Nagisa Oshima’s Cruel Story of Youth I never would have guessed that Japan c. 1960 was so rife with blackmailing, oversexed juvenile delinquents and pervy old men. Films like this remind me that there’s no such thing as the good old days.