BAD BOYS

Susumu Hani's first feature was this gritty pseudo docudrama of juvenile delinquency based upon a collection of papers, 'Wings That Couldn't Fly', written by the inmates of a boy's prison. The film follows a young man who drifts into petty crime, is arrested, imprisoned, reformed and released. True stories of other inmates are interwoven into his experience to create a startling document of crime and punishment.

Bad Boys is often cited as the first film of the Japanese New Wave. Like the films of the French New Wave, Bad Boys dealt with a previously taboo subject -- delinquency in a socially structured society. Also like the French Auteurs, Hani financed his first film with private funds. His limited resources and his status as an Independent outsider from the Japanese studio machines allowed him to experiment both with established narrative techniques (using reformed prisoners to read or re-enact their experiences) and production techniques (much of the film was shot on grainy 8mm and 16mm).

Bad Boys is a unique landmark in the Japanese cinema. It heralds the start of a new type of Japanese film and forces us to confront a new type of director. This isn’t Ozu anymore!

Directed by Susumu Hani. Screenplay by Hani from the book, 'wings that Couldn't fly' With Yukio Yamada, Hirokaza Yoshitake, Koichiro Yamazaki.

JAPAN 1960 95 minutes. English Subtitles.
ISBN 1-55881-515-5
$39.95

NANAMI
The Inferno Of First Love
Hatsukoi Jigoku-Hen

Powerful erotic new wave drama from Susumu Hani. Shun, a disturbed young man, seeks emotional and spiritual fulfillment from a prostitute named Nanami. He is constantly haunted by memories of his molestation by his foster father and is impotent. Shun’s desires for Nanami will lead him through a world of erotic fantasy, deprivation, degradation and sado masochism.

“In condemning child abuse and the sexual exploitation of women by men, the film is often in danger of becoming the very thing it is criticizing. There are scenes of women posing in the nude, sado-masochistic games and a young boy and a girl being sexually molested, although the director is ostensibly making a moral point. The censors didn't see it this way and 20 minutes was cut from the film on its first US release. Be that as it may, sharp camerawork and telling flashbacks, realistic locations and the excellent non- professional actors reveal Hani as a forceful and talented director.” — Holt’s Foreign Film Guide

Although unrated, the film contains nudity, violence and mature subject matter. For adults only.

Directed by Susumu Hani. Script; Susumu Hani, Shuji Terayama. Photo; Yuji Okumura. Music; Akio Yashiro, TohruTakemitsu. Cast; Akio Takahashi, Kuniko Ishii, Koji Mitsui, Kazuko Fukuda .

Japan 1968 104 min. Japanese dialog, English subtitles.
ISBN 1-55881-037-4
$29.95

SHE AND HE
Kanojo To Kare

One of Susumu Hani's recurring themes was the status of women in modern society. One of his first attempts at the subject was this Antonioniesque melodrama set in a sterile high rise complex. A woman resident becomes discontent with the empty life she and her husband are leading. They encounter a street beggar who lives in poverty with his dog and a blind orphan. The woman becomes fascinated by the beggar’s world and pursues a friendship which leads to terrible discord and a tragedy.

"A strangely satisfying little picture"- NYT

“A minutely observed, intimate and unsentimental drama of social consciousness that uncovers the spiritual wasteland of suburbia, and explores the barriers erected by differences of class, money and, above all, aspiration.” —Holt’s Foreign Film Guide.

BEST ACTRESS SACHIKO HIODARI BERLIN -1964

Directed by Susumu Hani. Screenplay by Susumu Hani and Kunio Shimizu. Photo by Juichi Nagano. Music by Tohru Takemitsu. With Sachiko Hiodari, Eiji Okada, Kikuji Yamashita, Mariko Igarashi

JAPAN 1963 115 minutes. Japanese dialog with English subtitles.

ISBN 1-55881-516-3
$39.95

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KUROSAWA
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THE WANDERING SAMURAI

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