Last—and least only in age—is Nagisa Oshima: the audacious youngster who pushed the formal and social limits of existing Japanese cinema to the point of utter rejection. He challenged audiences with attacks on every kind of zeitgeist, rebelled against whatever dogma he could identify, and made colourful, wide-screen films that simultaneously reflected and bequeathed the changing social atmosphere of the early 1960s.

These traits are all readily found in his Cruel Story of Youth (1960); with a narrative revolving around a pair of outcasts partaking in questionable activities in even seedier turf, the film manages to deconstruct and interrogate social norms while retaining a vibrant, energetic, provocative tone. It practically defines the Nuberu bagu—Japan's New Wave—and thus stands as a definitive work in the nation's already crowded list of genuinely outstanding movies.

There are few color prints being shown in our first-run theaters that are as rich as this one.
Vincent Canby, 1984, New York Times