Cruel Story of Youth (青春残酷物語, "Seishun Zankoku Monogatari") is a 1960 film from Japan, directed by Nagisa Oshima. It has been called "the Japanese Rebel Without a Cause" for its story of alienated, angry Japanese young people in an uncertain era after World War II and the American occupation.
Makoto is an attractive young woman with an unfortunate fondness for hitchhiking. One day she hitches a ride home with an older man, but the man stops at a hotel instead and expects her to go in with him. After she demurs he gets more aggressive, and is manhandling her when she is rescued by Kiyoshi, a young passerby. They agree to meet on a date, where its revealed that Kiyoshi is hardly a white knight, but instead is aggressive and domineering, and a petty hoodlum to boot. Nevertheless, Makoto falls in love. The two start running a scam in which they recreate their first meeting, with Makoto luring older men only for Kiyoshi to intervene and shake them down for cash.
Eventually, of course, their story leads to tragedy.
Tropes:
- Back-Alley Doctor: Akimoto's clinic isn't paying very well, so he does abortions on the side. He aborts Makoto's pregnancy. This turns out bad for Akimoto.
- Bad Guy Bar: The sleazy bar that Kiyoshi frequents, which seems to be a cover for prostitution and other illegal activities.
- Chekhov's Skill: Makoto's sister Yuki has an old boyfriend, Akimoto—who is a doctor. And a doctor who isn't doing very well, based on his slovenly appearance and his shabby clinic. That proves crucial to the plot later on.
- Dirty Old Man: Or "old lecher" as Kiyoshi puts it. These are the type of people that he and Makoto lure into their scams.
- Downer Ending: Kiyoshi is beaten to death by the hoodlums at the bar for getting a couple of their fellow goons arrested. Makoto flings herself out of the moving car of yet another Dirty Old Man, and dies.
- Japanese Delinquents: Alienated young people in the post-war era.
- Meet Cute: A dark version, as Kiyoshi rescues Makoto from a rapey older man.
- Mrs. Robinson: Kiyoshi is seeing a woman a good 20 years older than he is. She gets very jealous when Makoto calls.
- Rape as Drama: When Makoto faints after Kiyoshi fishes her out of the water (that he threw her into in the first place) he rapes her.
- Sexy Soaked Shirt: Makoto after an aggressive Kiyoshi chucks her in the harbor as part of his dominance games.
- Split Screen: The last shot is a split screen showing both Kiyoshi and Makoto as dead.
- Would Hit a Girl: Kiyoshi has a habit of slapping Makoto whenever she pisses him off. She does not draw the correct conclusion from this.
