Everything Goes Wrong is a 1960 film from Japan directed by Seijun Suzuki.
It's a story of wayward, rebellious Japanese youth. The protagonist is Jiro, a young man who could be getting ready to go to college but seems more interested in drinking, smoking, and engaging in petty crime with his fellow rebellious teens. Toshimi, a lovely young girl who hangs out with the gang of teen hoodlums, is infatuated with Jiro, but he remains emotionally distant from her even as they start a sexual relationship.
The main reason for Jiro's rage, aside from general Jerkassery, is his home life. His father is long dead, killed in the war. His mother Misayo is the kept woman of Mr. Nanbara, a married businessman who has been financially supporting Misayo for years. Mr. Nanbara is a gentle man and it seems he and Misayo genuinely care about each other, but Jiro hates his mother for being The Mistress and hates Mr. Nanbara for keeping her. His seething aggression eventually has disastrous consequences.
A subplot follows Etsuko, another young lady who hangs out wit the gang, who is left scrounging for the money to get an abortion after her boyfriend knocks her up.
Tropes:
- Amusement Park: Jiro and his buddy go to one, seemingly for no other reason than to show Jiro brooding and pissed-off and unable to have fun.
- Between My Legs: Mr. Nanbara is framed this way, between Jiro's legs as an angry Jiro stands on a bed staring down at him, right before their final violent confrontation.
- Convenient Miscarriage: "Convenient" might not be precisely the right word as Etsuko is still left alone and forgotten. But after finally getting the money for an abortion, only to be immediately robbed, she faints and falls down some stairs. She loses the baby.
- Downer Ending: Jiro dies, Toshimi probably dies, and while Mr. Nanbara apparently survived Jiro's assault his relationship with Misayo is surely destroyed.
- Dramatic Drop: Jiro has an Oh, Crap! / My God, What Have I Done? moment after bashing Mr. Nanbara on the head, as shown when he dramatically drops the bloody wrench.
- Fake Action Prologue: The opening credits play over a World War II combat scene. It's actually a movie called Fight 'Til the Last Drop of Blood (apparently this film
), which Jiro was watching at the movie theater. - Hassle-Free Hotwire: It apparently takes Jiro about ten seconds to force open the hood of a car and fiddle with some wires to start the engine.
- If It Bleeds, It Leads: Ttobishima the cynical newspaperman at the end chortles about how he's going to write a big front-page story about wayward youth causing violence and death.Tobishima: And I'll go for the sex angle too.
- Japanese Delinquents: Rebellious teens committing theft and assault and wreaking havoc.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Jiro is a whiny, self-centered Jerkass who doesn't just verbally berate his mother and commit petty crimes; no, he also treats his girlfriend like garbage. But he's not wrong to call out Mr. Nanbara's self-righteous moralizing, noting that Mr. Nanbara is a hypocrite to lecture Jiro when he is an adulterer who keeps Misayo as a mistress.
- Kids Play Match Breaker: Jiro drags his mom into the scene with Mr. Nanbara and a half-naked Etsuko—it's not at all what it looks like—in an effort to break the two of them up. To his disgust Misayo throws herself at Mr. Nanbara's feet and says that it's ok for him to want another woman, so long as he doesn't abandon her.
- The Mistress: Misayo is Mr. Nanbara's long-term mistress and kept woman. It seems that he's been financially supporting her since some time not long after the war, in return for sex and companionship.
- Murder-Suicide: Assuming Toshimi dies as well, as the film doesn't actually say. But Jiro ignores her screams to stop the car and let her out, and instead deliberately plows his car into an oncoming truck.
- Parent with New Paramour: Not a new paramour, as apparently Misayo has been Mr. Nanbara's lover for quite a long time. But it seems that Jiro has not realized the true nature of his mother's relationship until recently, and he's very, very angry about it.
- Promiscuity After Rape: A hysterical Toshimi says to Jiro that some time ago, she was gang-raped. Then the next day she had sex with her rapists freely and has been promiscuous ever since.
- Shameless Fanservice Girl: A topless Toshimi stands in front of an open window, facing a busy street, and muses about how she likes the feel of fresh air.
- Tempting Fate: Etsuko mocks Mr. Nanbara's discomfort after she starts taking her clothes off, saying "Are you worried that a young guy will walk in here and threaten you?". Moments later Jiro barges in, dragging his mom along.
- Thousand-Yard Stare: One young lady in the gang is shown sitting at the bar, staring emptily. The film showed her in a previous scene weeping hysterically after she was raped in a "three-on-one." The lady bartender says, with chilling indifference, "She was probably gang-raped. It happens all the time."
- Title Drop: The next-to-last line of the film has Tobishima the reporter thinking out loud, reciting what will be the lede of his story about these events.Tobishima: Today good will between people can't exist anywhere. Everything goes wrong.
- Toplessness from the Back: Toshimi is shown topless from the back as she looks through a window after sex with Jiro.
