295 Crazed Fruit

[Cinephrenic]

The French nouvelle vague didn't really kick off until around 1958. It seems odd and premature for someone to make such a statement.

[colinr0380]

Mondo Digital review

[Lino]

Beaver review

[Narshty]

Well, it's a very fresh, energetic, raunchy little film (basically it's The O.C. but 50 years ago in Japan), but the nihilistic kamikaze ending is a little much - the whole supposed psychology behind it was, to my taste, a touch overbaked. Still, a lot of sleazy, rickety fun.

[Doctor Sunshine]

I agree. This film has the same kind of fresh vitality, well, The Cranes Are Flying comes to mind, that seems to happen most often upon some sort of social mellowing. Fresh is the word. Also, it's very stylish and it is saucy but--it's got to be stressed--1950s saucy. I did enjoy the ending though. I'd say it was really the only way to go in a film with such a charged, confused, adolescent-brand intensity. A suitably memorable, stylistic and jarring conclusion, I'd say.

Overall, this type of film embodies the most fun thing about the Criterion Collection: hidden gems seemingly unknown outside of their own country, if there even. To quote Mike Nelson: I LIKED IT VERY MUCH!

[Toshiro De Niro]

I was disappointed but mainly because I expected HVE to handle movies like that. It's very stylish and worth seeing, but not for buying and keeping. This and Insomnia I think are the only criterions that I would rather rent than keep.

[zedz]

I finally got around to watching this and I was reasonably impressed. The film is stylish and involving, and even though I knew from the outset that it was all going to end badly, I was unprepared for the sheer brutality of the climax, particularly the specific piece of nastiness that looks forward to the conclusion of Night Games.

I'm glad that Criterion is including significant, overlooked films such as this in the Collection. The film may be half-forgotten nowadays, but it occupies a crucial place in Japanese film history as a precursor of the New Wave. Richie is good at highlighting those connections in his commentary, which is effortlessly erudite and nicely paced. The oddity noted earlier in the thread, namely the suggestion that Nakahira was influenced by the Nouvelle Vague, derives from that commentary:

The French nouvelle vague didn't really kick off until around 1958. It seems odd and premature for someone to make such a statement.

(Yet another instance of a reviewer passing off information gleaned from the disc as a personal observation).

Richie, however, seems to be employing a rather loose definition of the Nouvelle Vague, as one of the French directors he identifies in this regard is Carne(!).

He's more convincing when he identifies what it is about the film that anticipates the real New Wave(s) of the 60s. The character of Eri, for example, he persuasively identifies as being particularly modern, though he proposes that the reason for this is that the character was added as a plot device and never fully developed - hence her modish, enigmatic lack of motivation.

[FilmFanSea]

I was quite taken with this little gem. Based on Criterion's description, I guess I expected a Fifties-era, superficial teen sex romp filtered through a Japanese sensibility. But I wasn't prepared for the excellent cinematography, the creative, rhythmic editing, or the moody/jazzy Elmer Bernstein-meets-Hawaiian-ukelele score by <gasp> Toru Takemitsu (which I liked a lot, despite the odd description). I thought the ending was very affecting, despite (or perhaps because of) its inevitability. Nakahira must've seen some of Nick Ray's films before making this, his first film as director.

And it was shot in only 17 days.

Much like the similarly surprising Ermanno Olmi films (neither of which I had ever even heard of prior to Criterion's releases), I suspect I will return to this film often.

I listened to Donald Ritchie's commentary, but came away disappointed. I wish he had recorded a more focused 10-15 minute introduction instead, or prepared better, since he seemed to exhaust his insights quickly, and ended up repeating himself a lot.

In the end, Crazed Fruit isn't substantial enough to be a masterpiece (and the acting is fairly pedestrian), but it is more than 'worthy' to carry a CC spine number. (FYI: the Deep Discount sale ends Saturday)

[analoguezombie]

I'm going to be a complete ass for just a moment and ask, who the hell is Richolas Ray? Good info though.

What do you mean? You're a complete ass every moment.

[Andre Jurieu]

What do you mean? You're a complete ass every moment.

Yeah, probably, and I'm sure a lot of people agree with you, but what the heck are you so bitter about that you decided to drudge up this post about a spelling error Jun-Dai made from almost 10 months ago?

[tryavna]

Poor Andre! Apparently, you're the type of person other people hold grudges against for months and months....

[Andre Jurieu]

Apparently, you're the type of person other people hold grudges against for months and months....

Well, I'm not all that surprised.

[kortik]

I love the edning thats how it should end IMO

they deserve it.

Reach people ah?

I wonder how this event changed litle brothers life afterwards
interesting ah

[Taketori Washizu]

Anyone know why the commentary track was recorded three years prior to the release? It says done in the spring of 2002. Could this have been a typo or a possible delay in the release to source the proper print?

[kortik]

probably a typo

[AWA]

This hasn't been commented on in some time, but I just saw this for the first time tonight and found it interesting. You could certainly see the influence it would have had on the French New Wave. I was particularly amused by how the characters messed around with material items like bored kids will do... but in the context of the time and place, this might be more of a comment on modern materialism having no meaning... despite it being hotter than hell there, obviously the one brother is constantly sticking something into the fan carelessly, just to see if it will break or not... it's disposable, who cares? Get another one. Same thing with breaking the pool cue over his knee - Frank sits there and doesn't blink an eye. Oh well - just another thing. Same thing with just ripping the dress. Certainly some sort of motif commenting on materialism at the time.

Also somenice cinematography at times, which was pretty impressive considering this was supposed to be a very low budget production.

[Michael Kerpan]

Also just watched this last week. Interesting for sure -- but I think I like Ichikawa's Punishment Room (also from 1956, I believe) more.

[esl]

Regarding the modern materialism aspect: is that aimed at the kids or the then current Japanese society? Consider this. The screenplay is based on a story by Shintaro Ishihara, who is currently the mayor of Tokyo. He has always had nationalist tendencies. The occupation of Japan had only ended a few years before. Japanese society and its economy were still recovering from the devestating results of the war. These kids were embracing the materialism of the west, the flashy western clothes, cars, furnature and music as a protest. They were disdainful of many of the traditional japanese values, some of which they may have thought brought about Japan's defeat. Their hedonistic attitudes and actions may be viewed as a way to get back (a slap in the face) at the previous generation or two which had brought Japan to war and then allowed it to be defeated and occupied.

I do agree the cinematography is impressive. I would be interested in seeing other films by this director, but no others are currently available on DVD even in Japan.

[dad1153]

Saw "Crazed Fruit" over the weekend. Another great 'genre' Japanese movie that only Criterion would bother bringing to the States. Yes, it's tame by today's standards but Nakahira's seminal Japanese film about disaffected wealthy youths is nothing short of a knockout, the Japanese "Cruel Intentions" of its day.

Like a prototype working version of the FNW mold and a cross-cultural 'noir' getting their atoms smashed together "Crazed Fruit" is shot, edited and scored to heighten its own sense of artificiality. Or maybe they didn't have the means to shoot the boat scenes with better rear-projection cameras, but I found how phony these shots looked endearing. Loved the palpable, very real sexual chemistry on-screen between future husband-and-wife Yûjirô Ishihara and Mie Kitahara. This is as erotic as "Woman in the Dunes" in that the limited amount of flesh shown is more than compensated by conveying the lust the lovers feel for each other. The toying Natsuhisa and Eri engage in with the fragile, youthful emotions of Natsu's younger brother Haruji (Masahiko Tsugawa) ends up changing their lives in unexpected (to them, not us) ways. The movie could have used a more subtle touch in its depiction of the 'Americanization' of these kids' care-free existence instead of using 'gaijin' characters (which stick out like neon road signs) for the audience back in '56 to 'get it.' Again, this only helps this 'sun tribe' flick stand out even more. The ending is predictable but also appropriate in that the entirety of the film leads up to it as being the natural order of things.

[What A Disgrace]

Does anybody have that hilarious fake cover art for this film saved? I lost that (and the similarly crazy fake A Canterbury Tale cover art) when my old computer stopped working.