Fighting Elegy

1966 romantic drama

Rating: 15/20

Plot: Piano virtuoso (but only when he plays with his penis) Kiroku attends an Okayama middle school in 1930's Japan. He falls in love with Michiko, the daughter of a Catholic family who lives in the same house. Perhaps to hide his true feelings and his frequent unwanted erections, he focuses on picking fights with gangs and trying his best to break rules at school. He's expelled and moves away where he continues to pine for Michiko's piano.

This is more Seijun Suzuki, but it's such a different Seijun Suzuki that you might not even realize it. There's some flashes of Suzuki flare (most notably, a classroom scene and some shots that really couldn't have been anybody else's). I absolutely loved the comic fight scenes, completely baffling and unrealistic. Apparently, this is a satirical look at the youth of 1930's Japan, but I'm not nearly intelligent enough to "get" all that. This might not be as exciting as the other Suzuki movies I've seen, but it's worth the time.