Worthless man

Jun Kitajima (Masahiko Tsugawa) is a young man from a poor family. He has no prospects and a clear idea of ​​his future. He ends up in a local gang of troublemakers. They commit petty crimes, listen to music loudly, joke with strangers and relax on the beach. The leader of the gang Toshio Akiyama (Yusuke Kawazu). His father is a successful businessman, occupies a leadership position in a large trading corporation. Toshio, because of boredom and ambition, wants to increase the criminal level of his team. He knows that every month, on the 28th, his father’s secretary, Ikuko Makino (Hizuru Takatiho), goes to the bank to get the boss’s money, so he and his friends decide to kidnap and scare the girl. Young people pretend to want to rob Ikuko. However, the girl does not resist, because the money belongs to Toshio's father. At the same time, one of the gang members, Ikuko says: “You are a worthless person!” Jun is this young man. He begins to look for a meeting with the girl, waiting for her after work. After some hesitation, Ikuko goes with Jun to the party organized by Toshio. Gradually, the girl begins to notice something good about Jun, he is more principled, direct and does not look like her friends. Ikuko is trying to make him reeducate, abandon his aimless lifestyle.

• Masahiko Tsugawa - Jun Kitajima
• Hizuru Takatiho - Ikuko Makino
• Yusuke Kawazu - Toshio Akiyama
• Shoji Yasui - Ikuko's brother, Shinichi
• Kakuko Tino - Hisako, Shinichi's wife
• Masao Mishima - Kensaku Akiyama, father of Toshio
• Isao Sasaki - singer in the club
• Junichiro Yamashita - Morishita
• Yosuke Hayashi - Fujieda
• Fumio Watanabe - Koji Sinohara, Ikuko's colleague

1) Yoshishige Yoshida in the movie "Worthless Man" avoids the usual methods of storytelling, destroys the stylistic and genre conventions of commercial cinema. ^[one]

2) The characters of the Yoshida film are not divided into positive and negative, everyone has a dark side, but there are unexpected outbursts of empathy with one's neighbor. As in his subsequent films, in "Worthless Man", Yoshida is trying to prevent the viewer from identifying with the main character. The effect of alienation is achieved through a special storyboard. Yoshida deliberately hides the faces of the actors from the viewer, pushes them into the shadows, fenders with screens, prevents them from being in the center of the frame. ^[one]

By the 60s, in connection with the spread of television, cinema attendance is falling, so the Cinema Studio decided to change the target audience. For this, young directors who were versed in the tastes of young people were hired. Among them was Yoshishige Yoshida. So, films exploiting the theme of violence, sex and social protest began to appear on Japanese screens.

The film was released in Japan at the same time as Jean-Luc Godard 's painting “ In the Last Breath ” (1960), with which the “Worthless Man” echoes. However, Yoshida saw Godard’s film after completing the filming of his painting. He later wrote that he was most likely influenced by Claude Chabrol 's film “ Cousins ”. ^[2]

• Yoshishige Yoshida on the Internet Movie Database
• A Worthless Person on the Internet Movie Database