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Cruel Story of Youth



A scorching tale of toxic love in a toxic world, Nagisa Oshima’s second feature film marked the artistic breakthrough of one of the most radical voices in the history of Japanese cinema. Caught in the dog-eat-dog crucible of postwar Tokyo, teenage lovers Makoto (Miyuki Kuwano) and Kiyoshi (Yusuke Kawazu) turn to a life of crime, entrapping lecherous middle-aged men in order to extort their money. But how long can the wayward youths outrun their fate? Bursting with vivid color, this visually scintillating, furiously nihilistic film howls with rage at a society in which everything—love, sex, and youthful idealism—has been corrupted.

4K UHD + BD SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

- New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- One 4K UHD disc of the film and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
- A Town of Love and Hope (1959), director Nagisa Oshima’s first feature film
- Tomorrow’s Sun (1959), a short film by Oshima
- Interview with film scholar Tony Rayns
- Trailer
- PLUS: An essay by critic Chris Fujiwara

New cover by Mariam El-Reweny

While many of us have the MoC Blu it’s fantastic to see this get a 4K release (Oshima’s first English friendly one right?). Even more exciting is the inclusion of A Town of Love and Hope (a film I was worried would fall to the wayside) and Oshima’s debut short film.

This seals the fate on the long rumoured (albeit weakly) Youth Trilogy/Quadrilogy set…

Hopefully Radiance, Criterion or Eureka will give a chance to the remaining two films in the ‘series’ - A Sun’s Burial and the staggering Night and Fog in Japan.

Would this had been a box set with The Sun's Burial and Night and Fog in Japan, but I'll take what I can get, I guess.

It's been years since I first saw this late night at night on TCM and all I can say is finally! Wonderful to see Oshima finally escaping the Criterion Mines and getting a new release!

I'm wondering if that Rayns interview is the same from the Masters of Cinema release. I can't remember if it's the one where Rayns talks about Oshima being closeted but I remember it being good at contextualizing the film in the time period for those put off by Oshima's abrasiveness. It's very much a product of postwar disillusionment and even by Oshima's standards it's cynical.

Looking forward to it! If the caps are accurate, it looks like they toned down the greenish hue.

Eureka


Criterion

Great movie. I have an indelible memory of the scene were the lead actor crunches an apple in an abortionist's office.

Considering the MoC was going for like $100, this is a great rebuff of the gouging market. Hopefully an upgrade of the Eclipse set is forthcoming as well

Surprised that this got a release before "Boy", especially considering they paid for the 4K scan for the latter.

Also a bit obvious to say but this looks like a release where they are testing the waters to see if this will be profitable enough to release more Oshima titles.

domino harvey wrote: Wed Apr 15, 2026 6:03 pm Considering the MoC was going for like $100, this is a great rebuff of the gouging market. Hopefully an upgrade of the Eclipse set is forthcoming as well

<Sigh> One of these days I'll make the right decision to let go of something in my collection before it's value crashes...but to date I haven't had any success. I wish I could just be happy this is coming out.

Do we think this is the same interview from Eureka’s disc? It doesn’t say new

domino harvey wrote: Wed Apr 15, 2026 8:13 pm Do we think this is the same interview from Eureka’s disc? It doesn’t say new

That was what I was thinking because he's the only English language scholar who I've seen write/talk about it at length other than Donald Ritchie. I don't know what the licensing fees are but I would assume they're not as high as those BBC fees Michael Brooke has warned us all about it. It's a fun feature from what I remember!