Everything Goes Wrong

In a review about Samuel Fuller's The Naked Kiss I drew a comparison with Seijun Suzuki pointing out that both directors were stylish masters of genre films that often smuggled in subversive ideas about society. Everything Goes Wrong (1960) is case in point. In this youth film Suzuki manages to criticize Japanese armament manufacturers and the previous generation for the war and chaos and struggle that followed. Furthermore, he addresses juvenile delinquency and pretty crime, prostitution, abortion, sexual assault-particularly gang rape as well as slip in an anti-nuke demonstration in the background of a scene. The film is about an angry youth, Jiro (Tamio Kawajima), who has a Madonna-whore complex with women-his own mother included-he resents that she has had an affair with a married man who has stayed by her over 10 years while helping support her and the family. Her lover is an executive at an armaments manufacturer-it was a Japanese tank that killed Jiro father in the war. Jiro's simple-minded reckoning makes him the enemy-he is of a generation that did not have to suffer due to the war. A reporter remarks that society has changed and there is no longer any trust or good will among people. Suzuki's film is essentially a reflection of moral decay in the postwar society. The film also stands out for the documentary-like on location settings in Tokyo and Kamakura as much as for the stylish jazz clubs with live American-inspired music. This is an impressive early Suzuki film that gives a glimpse of his future potential..