Crazed Fruit

Kō Nakahira's 1956 film is the best known example of the sun tribe current that described a generation's restlessness in postwar Japan. Two brothers are drawn to the same young woman during a summer by the sea; the days pass in sailing, drink, gambling and idleness, and then the rivalry between them arrives somewhere else. The screenplay adapts a controversial novel by Shintarō Ishihara, and Yūjirō Ishihara, who plays the lead, is the writer's brother. On release the film met a moral backlash in Japan: showing the sexual freedom of privileged young people this openly drew harsh criticism in the press of the day. The Nikkatsu studio made that argument part of its marketing. It is now regarded as one of the essential films marking the postwar break in Japanese cinema. Who it's for: viewers curious about Japanese film history and its youth movements. Who it's not for: anyone expecting the characters to be held to account; the film never goes near it.