Youth Of The Beast - The Masters Of Cinema Series

Super fast shipping, brand new, as it said on the description, I’ m very satisfied with this purchase.

Very entertaining film.

I was pretty bored from start to finish. If you like stuff that's bad in some kind of ironic way or something you might like this. Otherwise you'll feel about as much connection with this movie as does the front-man, which it seems, is virtually nothing.

Eccentric Japanese hoodlums with a dash of horseradish.

People think if someone can make a movie and pack it full of style and no story it becomes a classic, well at least Criterion thinks that way. This film is pure style over content: it has a laughable, convoluted and uninteresting plot. The plot sounds very cool (Tokyo's underworld explodes into violence when a mysterious enforcer arrives) and one expects a hard boiled Yojimbo-style story but it is the opposite, a dull and idotic affair: the characters are one-dimensional and laughable and the story is really poor, flicking from comedy to action. It was terribly negligent of Nikkatsu to wait until the awful Branded to Kill to fire the madcap director (Seijun Suzuki) who was clearly interested in being as bizzare and silly as wanted to; he deserved to be fired by his company as he demonstrates a complete disregard for the craft of storytelling. I've got no problem with his surreal directing style, I actually love his eye-catching and bright pop-art style but it is wasted on a unfocused and incoherent plot; the film could have been a lot better with a consistently good hardboiled gangster story throughout and the audience were not treated like idiots. In one idiotic scene a man whips a woman again and again and when she lies on the floor he kisses her-this scene may impress idiots but it struck me as really dumb. Those thinking that you're in for some gripping and stylish action scenes in the vein of Get Carter will be disappointed: they are handled terribly, the cool shotgun that is shown off on the stunning Criterion artwork and in the film is actually broken and is never fired, in another scene the hero hangs upside down while shooting which is strongly reminiscent of a James Bond parody.I expected a cool/stylish crime film (in the style of Nikkatsu's best like the hard boiled A Colt is my Passport (1967) with Joe Shishido) instead I got a very unfunny parody of a crime film with a silly plot involving a conspiracy in knitting organisation, unfunny slapstick humour and a lack of any stylish action. Youth of the Beast has all elements and ingredients of stylish crime film: hard boiled hero sporting a cool Get Carter black raincoat, tough dialogue, vicious gangsters, stylish weapons and pop-art imagery but in the wrong hands (Suzuki's) all this is not used at all to its potential and is turned into a silly and dull comedy crime film, in a better hands with a more grounded and capable Nikkatsu director (Toshio Masuda,Yasuharu Hasebe or Takashi Nomura) this film could have been much better.I respect The Criterion Collection they've re-released and remastered some classics that wouldn't be available (Classe Tous Risques, Le Deuxieme Souffle, Nikkatsu Noir Boxset and Blast of Silence) but to call this a "contemporary classic" (which they do at the back of the DVD) is like calling Harry Potter "a cinematic masterpiece". If you want some really good yakuza films that boast very good plots, interesting characters and direction watch: Akira Kurosawa's gripping "Drunken Angel" (1948) Masahiro Shinoda's stylish "Pale Flower" (1964) or Kinji Fukasaku's entertaining 5 part "Yakuza Papers Series" (1973-1974).

discs not damaged

Great!!!...

I discovered the films of Seijun Suzuki years ago and was surprised. He had a free wheeling style that was both creative and rebellious. What I love about Youth Of The Beast was actor Joe Shihid’s character of Joji Mizuno, a man walking into the shadow worlds of two yakuza groups and playing both sides to find out who was responsible for the death of a police detective and a woman in a hotel room. Joji’s relentless search brings him closer to death as he learns from both sides about their activities. But I didn’t expect to see the reveal at the end. It was an eye opener. There were no dull moments in this film, with its action scenes and mystery. I highly recommend this film to anyone interested in yakuza films and Seijun Suzuki, who is no Akira Kurosawa, but he definitely was up there with him and other filmmakers.

It arrived a couple of days late, but was delivered exactly as advertised. Fantastic film, Btw.

An audacious early outing from cult Japanese director Seijun Suzuki and the Nikkatsu studio, "Beast" is a hip, pulp-gangster flick with a twisty revenge plot involving murder, dope, go-go dancers, and salacious double crosses. (One kingpin even has a gay brother who slashes the face of anyone mentioning his mother!) With its surreal color palette, bizarre set pieces, and rapid cuts, the film has a unique visual flair--not to mention a killer crime-jazz score. And as the cop-turned-crook out for payback, Shishido is as hard-boiled as they come. For a lurid spin on the yakuza genre, unleash the "Beast."

I've become a fan to director Suzuki via the excellent 'Branded to Kill' and very good 'Tokyo Drifter'. This may be the best one of the 3