Young Thugs: Innocent Blood & Nostalgia DVD Reviews
We originally ran this review a solid month ago but with the discs about to hit shelves it seems like a good time to revisit this. Enjoy.
It seems like Artsmagic is making it their personal mission to dig up and release every Takashi Miike film ever made and, given how prolific the man is, that's no small task. The latest to come down the line are the two films from the Young Thugs (Kishiwada Shonen Gurentai) series that Miike directed. These films have been virtually impossible to find outside of Japan which is a shame as they showcase a seldom seen side of the director as he delves into nearly autobiographical territory. These are very personal films for Miike - he has gone on record saying the second entry is his personal favorite of his entire extensive canon of work - and that is shown in attention to detail and rich characters.
Young Thugs: Innocent Blood tracks the lives of four high school friends through the first year following their graduation. It is essentially a coming of age story with the four left to their own devices to discover who they are and forge their own place in the world. In a rapid fire montage we are introduced to Riichi, the group's street brawling ring leader; Ryoko, his girlfriend; Kotetsu, his willing accomplice who is captured and jailed for his own violent behavior in the film's opening minutes; and Yuji, a bit of an awkward misfit. In the opening act of the film there seems to be more than a bit of irony in the title as this group is definitely more thug than innocent but as time passes you quickly realize that there is a certain childlike quality to each of them, a certain naivete that merits the innocent label. All four have been cast adrift - their families are entirely absent - and are simply trying to find their way through life with what meager skills they have.
Very much a character piece, Innocent Blood is simply trying to give us a picture of this quartet's lives as it tracks their slow, tentative movement toward something more adult. Miike here gives us the most complete and fleshed out characters of his entire career. He's built films around strong individuals before but in this film the entire cast of characters is absolutely true to life and their interactions with each other are flawless. This is interesting material for Miike as he is essentially charting the group's course away from the sort of behavior his films are best known for.
Innocent Blood is worth a viewing on the strength of its characters alone but it gives us much more than that. Miike spins his characters through situations and trials at a steady clip, building a compelling story around Riichi's life in the protection racket, Kotetsu's reintegration into life following his release from prison, the slow dissolution of Riichi and Ryoko's relationship, and Yuji's budding relationship with one of Ryoko's co-workers. Miike integrates a pair of his trademark stylistic flourishes into the early going and does it so smoothly that they fit perfectly with the tone of the overall proceedings. A third burst of Miike weirdness in the closing act is somewhat more jarring, but the overall integrity of the piece still holds. Innocent Blood is definitely one of Miike's strongest works in terms of story and character.
A follow up of sorts, Young Thugs: Nostalgia is the film Miike has labelled his personal favorite and, while I don't think it's as strong a piece of storytelling as is Innocent Blood, I can certainly see why he feels that way. The aptly titled Nostalgia is the story of Riichi's childhood. Once again it gives us a year of his life - Kotetsu also features prominently - that being 1969 when Riichi is resting just on the cusp of adolesence. Here we see what created the hard and violent Riichi of Innocent Blood, his stunted family life and early outbursts of violence, as well as the open child who still lives within the older Riichi. Though being familiar with Innocent Blood isn't really a requirement for this film there are definitely aspects - the introduction of Riichi's adult nemesis Sada, a young actress who is obviously meant to be Ryoko in the days before the pair met, some repeated shots - that will be more fully appreciated if you have seen the earlier film first.
As strange as the idea of Miike making a film with an almost entirely youthful cast may sound he pulls it off admirably. The young stars are all excellent and these younger versions of Riichi, Kotetsu and Ryoko all have a pretty surprising resemblence to their older selves. The film is very well written with a balance of humor, violence and hard edged social commentary and presented well. Where it takes a step back from Innocent Blood, however, is in it's like of an overall narrative thrust. Innocent Blood always felt as if it were headed somewhere while Nostalgia feels more like a series of set pieces. The set pieces are often fantastic, yes, but the film lacks the overall emotional punch of Innocent Blood.
As is proving to be standard for Artsmagic releases both feature fine transfers, are in anamorphic widescreen and have a fairly full slate of extras including interviews with Miike about the making of the films and simple documentaries about Osaka's people and culture. There's no commentary on these, which is a shame - I would have loved to have a subtitled Miike commentary on them given how personal these projects were to him - but on the whole they are excellent packages.
