Crazed Fruit

Ko Nakahira's Crazed Fruit (1956) was championed early by Donald Richie and Joseph Anderson who put it on the cover of their book on Japanese film. It is a harbinger of the Japanese New Wave and introduced the seminal Sun Tribe (taiyozoku) as an adaptation of the controversial novel from Shintaro Ishihara (who would later become the conservative mayor of Tokyo). It also introduced Nikkatsu stars Yujiro Ishihara and femme fatale Mie Kitahara (later they would also marry) in the leads. These antics of the rich, bored youths drinking, water skiing, getting into fights , and chasing women was beyond the means of most youth at the time, which was certainly part of the appeal. The jazz infused soundtrack was the first by composer Toru Takemitsu, who go onto create several memeorable soundtracks for the likes of Kurosawa, Shinoda, Kobayashi, and Teshigahara among others. The film was groundbreaking in its depiction of youthful sexuality, Kitahara plays a 20 year old married to American, but engaged in a love triangle with the pure and naive Masahiko Tsugawa and his worldly older brother Ishihara. This in turn created protest of the film. Sadly Nakahira would not get the opportunity to follow his own vision and was forced to do studio assigned projects and later tried to create Chiense version of the taiyozok in Hong Kong for the Shaw Borthers. The Criterion editon includes: audio commentary from Jaapnese-film scholar Donald Richie, the theatrical trailer, and a 16-page booklet featuring essays by critc Chuck Stephens and film scholar Michaal Raine.