Boy / Shonen (1969 Nagisa Oshima)

I was all set to watch another Tarkovsky but as Oshima died on Jan 15 (aged 80) I thought it was time to experience Boy, entirely different in style to the same year's Shinjuku Thief.

Taken from newspaper reports, the film is like a harder-edged 400 Blows, presented matter-of-factly. The scene where the boy demolishes the snowman is unforgettable. I lose count of the number of times the poor stepmum is slapped.

The boy is Tetsuo Abe (his only film) with Fumio Watanabe, Akiko Koyama and Tsuyoshi Kinoshita.

Strange mixes into monochrome.

Good use of extreme widescreen.

Still courtesey of Filmnation