is a 1961 Japanese

pseudo-documentary A pseudo-documentary or fake documentary is a film or video production that takes the form or style of a documentary film but does not portray real events. Rather, scripted and fictional elements are used to tell the story. The pseudo-documentary, ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

about juvenile delinquents, written and directed by

Susumu Hani is a Japanese film director, and one of the most prominent representatives of the 1960s Japanese New Wave. Born in Tokyo, he has directed both documentaries and feature films. He won the Directors Guild of Japan New Directors Award for his firs ...

. It is based on the novel of the same name by Aiko Jinushi.

Plot

After his arrest for theft in a jewelry store, juvenile delinquent Asai is sent to a reform school. He is first assigned to the laundry group, where he is bullied by the group's reckless leaders, before he is allocated to a group of youths manufacturing furniture and experiences solidarity and team spirit. He befriends Debari, who was sentenced for repeated mugging with his gang and urges Asai to wise up and not end like him. Asai is eventually released, facing an uncertain future.

Production and reception

Since Hani had a background in

documentaries A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in term ...

, he shot ''Bad Boys'', his first feature-length fiction film, in a documentary style, using "nonprofessional actors, black and white, hand-held cinematography, and

location shooting Location shooting is the shooting of a film or television production in a real-world setting rather than a sound stage or backlot. The location may be interior or exterior. The filming location may be the same in which the story is set (for ex ...

." It has been considered one of the films to launch the

Japanese New Wave The is a group of loosely-connected Japanese filmmakers during the late 1950s and into the 1970s. Although they did not make up a coherent movement, these artists shared a rejection of traditions and conventions of classical Japanese cinema in ...

. A facility was used as the filming location.

Awards

''Bad Boys'' was voted the best film of 1961 in the poll of film critics by ''

Kinema Junpo , commonly called , is Japan's oldest film magazine and began publication in July 1919. It was first published three times a month, using the Japanese ''Jun'' (旬) system of dividing months into three parts, but the postwar ''Kinema Junpō'' ha ...

''. Hani was awarded the

Directors Guild of Japan New Directors Award The is given annually by the Directors Guild of Japan to a new director of a film released that year who is considered the most "suitable" for the award. The winner is selected by a committee formed of DGJ members. All formats—feature film, docu ...

, and

Toru Takemitsu TORU or Toru may refer to: * TORU, spacecraft system * Toru (given name), Japanese male given name * Toru, Pakistan, village in Mardan District of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan *Tõru Tõru is a village in Saaremaa Parish, Saare County in western ...

received the

Mainichi Film Award The are a series of annual film awards, sponsored by Mainichi Shinbun (毎日新聞), one of the largest newspaper companies in Japan, since 1946. It is the first film festival in Japan. History The origins of the contest date back to 1935, ...

for Best Film Score for his work on ''Bad Boys'' and ''Mozu''.

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bad Boys 1961 films 1961 drama films Japanese drama films Japanese black-and-white films Films directed by Susumu Hani Films scored by Toru Takemitsu Best Film Kinema Junpo Award winners 1960s Japanese-language films 1960s Japanese films