Youth of the Beast
Director: Seijun Suzuki
Year Released: 1963
Rating: 1.5
Squirrel-cheeked Jo Shishido joins the mob in order to get to the bottom of who killed his partner when he was still on the police force. Suzuki's sets are wild and this is one of his more 'straightforward' efforts (not much plot manipulation or hysterical editing or rampant digressions) though it is ultimately another one of those yakuza-type pictures they've been known to crank out again and again. Though the men are as cruel as expected, the women get a raw deal: most are there to either get naked or get whipped (when they aren't manipulative shrews). So much for the humanity.
