Bathed in an endless summer of gambling, boating and drinking with their rebellious friends, brothers Haruji and Natsuhisa seem set up for another indulgent vacation by the seaside. A chance meeting with Eri has Haruji smitten with first love, and it looks like his quiet nature has won her over. But the explosive, directionless energy and hidden secrets of those around him are about to rampage his experience of love and brotherhood, in an unforgettable blaze off Nakahira’s silver screen.
Based on the novel Crazed Fruit by Shintarō Ishihara, Juvenile Jungle portrays the sexual revolution of Japan’s disillusioned and privileged post-war youth, often referred to as the taiyōzoku or ‘sun tribe generation’. An immediate cultural phenomenon, it followed the novel in representing the voice of this restless and rebellious crowd in popular culture for the first time. Scored by award-winning composers Masaru Satō and Tōru Takemitsu, Nakahira’s film inspired a new genre for the taiyōzoku, and pioneered stylistic territories that internationally propelled the New Wave movement.
"As Truffaut, Ōshima, and others understood, in the summer of ’56, the future of Japanese cinema was already here."
- Michael Raine of the University of Chicago, for The Criterion Collection (2005)
Saturday 30th September
85 min
CTC
Kō Nakahira
Film Festival
Chauvel Cinema
