Shônen (1969)
Genre: Drama
Duration: 105 minuten
Alternative titles: Boy / 少年
Country:
Japan
Directed by: Nagisa Ôshima
Stars: Tetsuo Abe, Fumio Watanabe and Akiko Koyama
IMDb score:
7,4 (2.148)
Releasedate: 26 July 1969
This movie is not available on US streaming services.
Shônen plot
A ten-year-old boy is employed by his father to provide the family with an income. He always has to pretend that he is hit by a car and then extort the driver. That goes well for a while, until the boy is arrested by the police.
Reviews & comments
Movsin
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- 8286 messages
- 8442 votes
Saw two films by Nagisa Ôshima, "L'Empire des Sens" and "Merry Christmas, Mr.Laurence" and actually neither of them, albeit for different reasons, really appealed to me.
This "Shônen" though, my goodness, what a beautiful film.
First of all, there is the disturbing story, based on true events, but also the raw, direct "nouvelle vague" way of bringing this story, with several really intense scenes, of which the one with the two little boys in the snow with the sad, reality-escaping fantasies of the eldest takes the cake and is of wonderful beauty.
Film that looks much younger than the one from 1969.
Translated from Dutch · View original
Filmkriebel
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- 10013 messages
- 4679 votes
I am a little less impressed than my predecessors, although I found the last half hour very strong. Oshima got his material from Japanese crime columns. Instead of simply and dryly telling the facts in the form of a crime story, he chooses to focus on the family dynamics, seen through the eyes of the ten-year-old son. The father of the family is too lazy to work and earns his money with a scam after which the victims pay out-of-court settlements.
It is clear that the son is not like his father: he is more empathetic, e.g. the accident on Hokkaido in which a girl dies and realizes that his parents' way of life is not right, but he is trapped under the criminal authority of his father. Underlyingly, you can hear a critique of the entry of capitalism and modernization into Japanese society. The editing is a bit too fragmentary for me to be good (there is little flow in the story), but Oshima's experimentation with monochrome images, the street scenes and the two children in the snow were extremely successful.
Translated from Dutch · View original
Fisico
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- 10039 messages
- 5398 votes
Raising children how not to do it. Inciting your children to fraud and fraudulent behavior to enrich themselves. Perhaps somewhat amateurishly executed the so-called accidents, but I forgive Ôshima for that, because otherwise it looked good, certainly for a picture from 1969.
It is interesting how the boy struggles with what is expected of him. Not knowing any better, he plays along with the comedy for a while, only to come to the conclusion that this is not OK. Ôshima indeed tries to confront the viewer with the facts, regardless of the plot, especially with the way he presents it: penetrating and direct.
I didn't know the film beforehand and came across it quite by chance, but it is definitely recommended for those who like Japanese slow cinema.
Translated from Dutch · View original
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