Gobierno de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires Ministerio de Cultura

Film info: 18 Roughs

Film Information

Original Title 18 Roughs
English Title 18 Roughs
Director Kijû Yoshida
Country  
Year 1963
Format 35 mm
Colour Color
Duration 108 min
Cast:
  • Tamotsu Hayakawa, Yoshiko Kayama, Yôko Mihara, Gannosuke Ashiya, Akemi Negishi
Production:
  • Guión: Kijû Yoshida
  • Fotografía: Tôichirô Narushima
  • Montaje: Kazuo Ôta
  • Producción: Seiya Araki

Synopsis

While 18 Roughs was made the year after the success of Love Affair at Akitsu Spa, it could hardly be more different from this beautiful melodrama. Wether too outlandish or ahead of its time, this film was completely neglected at the time of its release and only reevaluated recently. Neither a sensacionalist gang movie nor a Marxist-humanist outcry over social injustice, Yoshida’s realistic depiction of a group of young contract labourers at the very bottom of society may be closest to Italian neo-realism. The story is simple, the black-and-white widescreen camerawork is stark, and the young actors are all amateurs. The young rough labourers are not allowed to become individuals but remain an anonymous group, and human relations are depicted as void of mutual understanding and reconciliation. However, in this distancing way Yoshida confronts us more strongly with the absurd reality of human beings used as mere “things” providing labour, without offering any easy explanations.

Date and Times

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