Review of Young Thugs: Innocent Blood

Introduction

Takashi Miike, better known for films such as Young Thugs: Innocent BloodIchi the Killer, Audition, Graveyard of Honor and Gozud, made a couple of films in the Young Thugs series in the late 90s. These adaptations are based on the semi-autobiographical books by Riichi Nakaba`s and are located in and around Osaka during the 60s and 70s. It`s a sometime violent and comical story of young adults refusing to grow up once out of school.

Video

Presented with a 1.85:1 widescreen enhanced NTSC video transfer, the image for Young Thugs: Innocent Blood is a bit off as there was a 1-inch black bar at the top of the screen which looked like the image had shifted downwards; I think this must be down to over scanning. Anyway, the image itself does have a fair amount of dust throughout, which is a shame, more so when the film`s been compressed a bit too much too. There are minor artefacts hovering in the background of the soft looking image. There`s room for improvement.

Audio

There`s a choice of two soundtracks: Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 and 5.1. The DD2.0 soundtrack actually sounds better than the 5.1 version here, it`s more realistic in terms of the sound volume too with sound effects. I found the 5.1 a little too loud and has more background noise than the 2.0 audio. There`s nothing here to get excited about with 5.1 since there is no real use of surround at all and is just the same audio from the other channels.

Features

The DVD has easy to navigate static menus with a handful of extras:

• Bio/Filmographies - Static pages of info on the cast and crew.

• Takashi Miike Interview (subtitled) (17:17) - An interesting interview with the man where he talks about his early work.

• Original Trailer (subtitled) (1:56) - Yep, you guessed it, a trailer.

• Original Sleeve Art - The original Japanese VHS sleeve art which allows you to translate certain sections into English.

• Osaka History and Culture (8:39) - Written and presented by Takako Tucker, she gives us a lowdown on Osaka. Very interesting if you don`t already know about Osaka.

The film has English subtitles.

Conclusion

Right from the opening scene you`ll find yourself wrong footed, as this isn`t the usual Takashi Miike film. Young Thugs: Innocent Blood is about unruly young adults forced to start living life once they leave school. The boys can`t seem to manage it and still end up causing trouble. One of the `gang`, Ryoko, starts working as a hairdresser and she seems to be the only one with her head screwed on. The boys cause trouble with fights and the sometimes comical and extreme violence. It`s not easy to grow up when you`ve just left school and these guys show no willingness to make the transition to adults; they love the old days! The story changes however when one of the boys, Riichi, comes across his childhood sweetheart, Nahomi. This changes the relationship between him and his current girlfriend Ryoko, and things get a bit serious. Welcome to the grown-up world.

The video quality on the DVD could be improved, but is okay to watch; the soundtrack too is all right, and the extras are minimal but interesting. This leaves just the film and I have to say that it`s very likeable. Despite a sometimes slow pace, the film manages to be quirky, funny and entertaining.