Fighting Elegy [Criterion Collection]

In this sharp satire from acclaimed Japanese director Seijun Suzuki, Hideki Takahashi plays Kiroku, a middle-school student who finds himself troubled by an obsessive lust for the virginal Michiko (Junko Asano), the daughter of the family with whom he boards. But Kiroku soon discovers the perfect solution to thoughts of sex -- violence. One of Kiroku's schoolmates coaches him in the manly art of self-defense, and soon he joins a gang, eagerly fighting whenever the opportunity presents itself. Michiko is troubled by Kiroku's sudden embrace of his brutal side and tries to teach him to appreciate the more gentle side of life -- which, of course, doesn't help him at all. Soon, Kiroku is thrown out of school for making trouble and is sent off to live with his uncle, where preponderance and small-town machismo allow Kiroku to find all the violence he could hope for. The Fighting Elegy's screenplay was written by Kaneto Shindo, a noted leftist filmmaker who also served as an assistant director to Kenji Mizoguchi.