Rokudenashi

The ending of GOOD-FOR-NOTHING is influenced by Godard’s A BOUT DE SOUFFLE, which was released in Japan in March 1960 (Yoshida’s first film was shot over the next few months and released in July), but the social milieux of the two films are different. Yoshida’s hero is one of a small cluster of nihilistic Tokyo idlers whose leader is the son of a business executive. The executive makes progressive-sounding speeches in accordance with the official idealism of early postwar Japan; his son reads Rimbaud and makes fun of his dad’s moralistic secretary by introducing her at a party as a friend of Juliette Gréco and Yves Montand.
Yoshida’s treatment of youthful rebellion and love has great visual fluidity. The schematic and abstract quality of the film, together with its violently lurching narrative movement, betray the director’s suspicion of any simple approach to the privileged theme of the so-called Shōchiku New Wave: the malaise and cynicism among young people during Japan’s postwar economic boom. The dialogue is sometimes too explicit (the boss’s son, aptly, tells his companions to stop talking like media commentators), but the director’s style and his heartfelt skepticism triumph over any awkwardnesses in his script. (Chris Fujiwara)

All retrospective films that will be shown at the Filmmuseum after the Viennale - from 2.11. - can of course also be reserved as usual at filmmuseum.at or by calling 01/533 70 54 and purchased at the box office of the Austrian Film Museum. The prices of the Austrian Film Museum apply.

Yoshida Kijū: GOOD-FOR-NOTHING (1960), BLOOD IS DRY A.K.A BLOODY THIRST (1960), BITTER END OF A SWEET NIGHT (1961), AKITSU SPRING (1962), 18 WHO CAUSE A STORM A.K.A. 18 ROUGHS (1963), A STORY WRITTEN WITH WATER (1965), WOMAN OF THE LAKE (1966), IMPASSE (1967), THE AFFAIR (1967), AFFAIR IN THE SNOW (1968), FAREWELL TO THE SUMMER LIGHT (1968), EROS + MASSACRE (1969), HEROIC PURGATORY (1970), COUP D’ETAT (1973), A PROMISE (1986), WUTHERING HEIGHTS (1988), WOMEN IN THE MIRROR (2002), BEM-VINDO A SÃO PAULO (2004, Episode)