From New Trees

Rebellious Japanese teenagers deal with the presence of Americans and American culture in 1956's Crazed Fruit (狂った果実). The film has a similar flavour to American delinquent movies which dealt with teens in a world of changing cultural and familial dynamics. Crazed Fruit has a mostly average ensemble cast with the exception of a terrific performance from a young Ishihara Yujiro who sells the drama and suspense excellently.

Ishihara plays the elder brother of innocent young Haruji (Tsugawa Masahiko). It's Haruji's innocence that draws the eye of beautiful young Eri (Kitahara Mie).

Director Nakahira Ko uses rapid editing and expressionistic lighting to establish the fast, hedonistic lifestyle of the "sun tribe" (太陽族) boys who even count an American boy named Frank among them--actually played by Okada Masumi whose father was Japanese and mother was Danish. But he passes as American well enough in the movie.

Ishihara's character, Natsuhisa, immediately deduces there's something more to Eri than meets the eye when he dances with her and she doesn't recoil from his closer embrace. It turns out she has an American husband twice her age. Natsuhisa, now concerned for his little brother, confronts her about this and she explains that her relationship with Haruji is meant to make up for youthful experience she was robbed of when she was compelled to marry the American. The situation is a direct commentary on a phenomenon of Japanese and American intermarriage occurring in Japan after World War II and more broadly on fears concerning an erosion of Japanese cultural values and life patterns. Considering the film's noted similarity to American delinquent movies of the period, the problems experienced by these teens may have been more universal than the filmmakers realised. It functions as a good suspense drama in any case.

Crazed Fruit is available on The Criterion Channel.