Young Thugs: Innocent Blood

In Kishiwada, Osaka, four friends move into adulthood after finishing high school. The relationships do not work, the jobs do not hold and the group starts to break up. One of them, Yuji, is killed by lightning. The film ends during festival season with Riichi running into his old rival, tying nothing off. Takashi Miike directed, from Riichi Nakaba's autobiographical novel. It is a sequel to Boys Be Ambitious from 1996. Tom Mes notes in his book that this is unique in Miike's filmography: the only time he ever agreed to make a sequel to another director's film. The reviews were positive. One called it a pleasing character study filled with persuasive performances and marvellously quirky digressions; another called it an excellent, must-see film. A prequel, Young Thugs: Nostalgia, followed in 1998, looking at the characters' childhood. Who it is for: viewers curious about the Miike who films provincial youth rather than yakuza. Who it is not for: anyone who does not know the series. The film builds on the previous one and does not reintroduce its characters.