Youth in Fury aka Dry Lake (乾いた湖) (Japan, 1960) 3.5/5
directed by Masahiro Shinoda
The movie starts off with a group of wealthy ‘sun tribe’ young people as they party together, playing sexual games, showering together(!!) … when one of them finds out her father committed suicide. From here, director Masahiro Shinoda shows us how we’re all just pawns in a system manipulated by those with power and money.
“Sometimes you have to do things you don’t want to in this world”
Headstrong Yoko (Shima Iwashita) is told this by her mother while explaining why her sister is sleeping with a top politician (one who is directly responsible for the father’s suicide) to pay their bills. That money also pays for HER education.
She can’t accept that.
In the mix, is Tokuya (Shinichirō Mikami), a rebel who sneers at the rugby team, drinks, has pictures of Stalin and Che Guevara (and Hitler!) on his walls and sleeps with multiple women. About halfway through the movie, the political action committee on campus kicks him out of their group. They oppose a treaty between Japan and the U.S., Tokuya believes that aid from the U.S. is necessary for the working class.
At a party with his wealthy friends (from the opening), he watches as the young, wealthy sadistic Michihiko (Junichiro Yamashita) makes one of their female friends strip, walk around the room, and then sing, for 2 million yen. She had come to him for the money because her family company was failing, thinking she’d maybe just have to sleep with him for it.
Tokuya thinks maybe violence is the only remedy for change…
Shinoda says a lot here by his character’s actions and dialogue, and honestly, I could watch an entire TV series about these characters. If you’d have told me, this was made in 1967-68, I’d have believed it. I had no idea this level of rebelliousness existed in Japan in 1960…
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