Youth of the Beast

After a policeman's death is staged as suicide, a man whose identity is unclear infiltrates two rival yakuza organisations in Tokyo at once and tries to set them against each other. Who he is and why he is doing it opens up as the film proceeds. Seijun Suzuki took what the studio handed him as an ordinary yakuza assignment and turned it entirely into form: the colour has no interest in realism, the spaces are built like stage sets, and one fight takes place inside a yellow sandstorm. Jo Shishido leads. This counts as the film where Suzuki first applied his own style openly, and it is the start of the road toward his break with the studio a few years later. Who it is for: viewers who like Japanese crime cinema and visually daring genre films. Who it is not for: anyone wanting a plot they can follow.