Hizuru Takachiho is the secretary of a boss who is ruthless in business but genial otherwise. On her way back from the bank with the regular payroll, she's waylaid by her boss' son and his four college buddies, forced into a car, and the money is taken from her. It's all a practical joke, but she gets angry. When she goes home, she has to listen to her brother and his wife bicker about money.

Eventually she decides that one of the four students is worth saving. This leads her down a path of teenage angst, apathy, and gangsters-are-cool culture that infects her viewpoint.

It's Yoshishige Yoshida's first film as a director. He also wrote the screenplay, his first. Like other leaders of the Japanese New Wave, he told stories of nihilistic young men. In this one, the story glories in that attitude, leaving me with the sensation that if they don't care about their future, there's no reason I should. Japanese cinema has long had a habit of telling stories of failure, making explicit the Japanese saying that "the nail that sticks up gets hammered down." However, pending on a nail that is already bent flat seems to me a boring exercise.

Yoshida's later works became more conventional, to the point where he wrote and directed a version of WUTHERING HEIGHTS.

Japanese cinema is celebrated for its refined minimalist dramas and avant-garde experimentation; it also introduced popular genres like jidaigeki (samurai epics), kaiju, and anime. Across both high art and mass entertainment, it often explores morality, impermanence, and the pressures of modern life.

Hidetoshi Nishijima and Tôko Miura in Drive My Car (2021)

The action genre features fast-paced, thrilling, and intense sequences of physical feats, combat, and excitement. The characters of these stories are involved in daring and often dangerous situations, requiring them to rely on their physical prowess, skills, and quick thinking to overcome challenges and adversaries.

The crime genre features criminal activities, investigations, law enforcement, crimes, and the pursuit of justice. Crime stories often revolve around the planning, execution, and consequences of criminal acts, as well as the efforts to solve and prevent such acts. They explore various aspects of criminal behavior, motives, and the moral dilemmas faced by both perpetrators and those seeking to uphold the law.

James Gandolfini, Edie Falco, Sharon Angela, Max Casella, Dan Grimaldi, Joe Perrino, Donna Pescow, Jamie Lynn Sigler, Tony Sirico, and Michael Drayer in The Sopranos (1999)

A bored young student falls for the young secretary of his rich friend's father. She senses some good in him and tries to make him discard his aimless lifestyle.

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Masahiko Tsugawa and Hizuru Takachiho in Good-for-Nothing (1960)

Yûsuke Kawazu and Hizuru Takachiho in Good-for-Nothing (1960)

Good-for-Nothing

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