THE WARPED ONES (1960)

狂熱の季節

dir: Koreyoshi Kurahara

Nikkatsu

Sept 03, 1960

75 minutes B&W Nikkatsu scope

Tamio Kawaji as Akira

Eiji Go as Masaru

Noriko Matsumoto as Fumiko
Yuko Chishiro as Yuki

Must’ve seemed raw and shocking when it was released, it’s the story of a Japanese delinquent, Akira (Tamio Kawaji, in an early role), who lives to have fun, have sex, and stir up trouble. The hand held camera, and the black and white grittiness of it (as well as Kawaji’s screen presence) give it an almost documentary like feel.

Akira and his prostitute friend Yuki (Yuko Chisiro) get out of jail for scamming a guy and meet up with her boyfriend (Eiji Go) to go swimming. They immediately run into the guy that put them in jail. So they hit him with the car, and kidnap his girlfriend. Akira rapes her on the beach, as revenge, and this being Japanese culture, she naturally LIKES it and forms a bond with him, even though she’s completely disgraced by it.

Kawaji struts through this movie in such a brazen, in your face, who-gives-a-shit-about-anything way that it really took me by surprise. I looked to check twice to make sure this came out in 1960 and not 1970. One of the funniest scenes is when he later goes unannounced to the disgraced girlfriend’s house (she’s a well-to-do artist) and her wealthy friends all look and treat him like a piece of art, while he blows smoke in their faces and scoffs at them.

Amazing jazz music score throughout, and some non-PC conversations:
When Yuki turns down Akira’s black friend for a date, she tells him, “I hate Darkies!”
Akira then says, “They’re the best. They created jazz. And then the whiteies stole it. And now we’re copying it. We’re the worst!”

To top that off, Akira and the black friend then run off to go swimming together, alone, in an alluded to homosexual get together (“Let’s have fun!”), in really the only outwardly gleeful moment he has that doesn’t involve contempt for someone.
The coolest ‘Sun Tribe’ film I’ve seen yet.