If You Were Young: Rage (1970)

One of the best Japanese dramas produced in the early seventies is If You Were Young: Rage (a.k.a. Kimi ga wakamono nara, 1970) made by the talented director Kinji Fukasaku. The movie was filmed in a bold style that's reminiscent of his excellent crime drama Blackmail is My Life (a.k.a. Kyokatsu koso Waga Jinsei, 1968) which was made a few years earlier. Both movies were shot in color, but Fukasaku uses black and white flashback sequences, multiple freeze frames, jittery hand-held camera shots, fast zooms and creative editing to tell his complex stories.

At the heart of If You Were Young: Rage is a heart-wrenching coming of age tale about a group of troubled young men growing up in Japan during the sixties after WW2. The film explores the complicated and uncertain future that young Japanese men were faced with after the war as they tried to make their own way in a battle ravaged country trapped between tradition and modernism.

The performances by all the actors involved are really memorable and moving. The gritty realism of If You Were Young: Rage forces the actors to abandon themselves to their roles and deliver performances that seem incredibly honest and heartfelt. You sympathize with their plight as well as their anger, and hope that they'll see a better outcome than the film foreshadows.

If You Were Young: Rage has a very modern feel that seems vaguely reminiscent of the French Nouvelle Vague, as well as the kitchen sink dramas that were coming out of Britain a few years earlier. It's clearly a cutting-edge film and it's impossible not to be impressed with the movie's bold and unflinching approach to the social issues it dares to address.

Kinji Fukasaku is one of Japan's most talented filmmakers and If You Were Young: Rage is easily one of his most interesting films. Unfortunately his work has often been overlooked by critics which is a shame. If You Were Young: Rage definitely deserves to be critically examined again. I think the movie will appeal to modern audiences that are interested in seeing bold cutting-edge dramas made in Japan during the sixties and seventies.

If You Were Young: Rage is currently available on NTSC Region-1 DVD from Home Vision (Image Entertainment). The DVD features a nice widescreen presentation of the film with English language subtitles. It also includes an interesting interview with director Kinji Fukasaku that was shot right before his unfortunate death in January 2003.

For more information about the DVD please visit Amazon.

- Kimberly Lindbergs