The Sun's Burial

The Sun's Burial

1960 · 87 min · JA · 6.7 (20 votes)
Dir. Nagisa Ōshima · Starring Masahiko Tsugawa, Kayoko Honoo, Isao Sasaki, Fumio Watanabe, Kamatari Fujiwara, Tanie Kitabayashi · Music Riichirō Manabe
Drama

In Osaka's slum, youths without futures engage in pilfering, assault and robbery, prostitution, and the buying and selling of identity cards and of blood. Alliances constantly shift. Tatsu and Takeshi, friends since boyhood, reluctantly join Shin's gang. Shin's an upstart and moves his gang often to avoid the local kingpin. Hanoko is a young woman with ambitions: first she's in the blood business with her father, then she joins forces with Shin. She soon breaks off that partnership, even though she's taken the sensitive Takeshi under her wing. Double crosses multiply. Those with the closest bonds become each others' murderers.

VIBE

A raw, unflinching look at post-war Osaka's underbelly. It's a world of desperate youth, shifting loyalties, and brutal survival where innocence is a luxury no one can afford. Expect a stark, unvarnished, and deeply unsettling experience.

grittybleaknihilisticdesperatesteadyJapanese New Waveneo-realismsocial commentarysurvivalloss of innocenceurban decaymoral ambiguity
▶ Stream on Criterion Channel
youth gangosakajapanprostitutionpost war japanjapanese new waveslum dwellers
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