When a Takashi Miike movie comes with a quote by Takashi Miike on its cover, particularly one as enticing as "It's my favorite movie," a person simply must stand up and take notice. Having never before feared Mr. Miike steering me wrong, it was thus no difficult task getting excited about the film I was to review: Young Thugs: Nostalgia. This ended up being an appropriate reaction, for, it appears, Miike-san's taste in watching films (even his own) is just as good as his direction of them. If Young Thugs: Innocent Blood (review here) was a good film, Nostalgia is a great one, and easily one of the best movies I've seen in quite a while.

Our story follows young Riichi, a schoolboy in 60's Osaka, through his handling of the various trials and tribulations in his life. Things are, indeed, a little tough for this poor kid: at school, he and his friends are bullied by and get into scuffles with other kids in their class, and at home, Riichi must contend with a wildly inconsistent father whose moods are polar and rather unpredictable.

When one day at school Riichi gets into a fight with a group of boys, he is saved by the school's new teacher, a pretty young woman whom all the kids enjoy ogling as she teaches class. When she takes Riichi home to explain his scuffs and bruises to his parents, she finds a rather bizarre familial environment, sort of a Visitor Q lite. At the house, she meets Riichi's grandfather, who seems quite smitten with her, as well as Riichi's mother, a quiet and submissive woman. Riichi's father makes quite an entrance upon his arrival home, first looking the teacher over, then knocking his wife and her down when his wife protests his actions. Eventually the grandfather must step in to keep order, a job he accomplishes with the help of a nearby broom handle (and considering the fact that this is a Takashi Miike film, the man is obviously not in for a simple caning).

Feeling an understandable distaste for his family, Riichi decides to run away with a few of his friends. However, their discovery that Japan is actually much, much bigger than it appears on a map eventually puts the kibosh on their mission. Returning home, the three decide instead to attempt to win their school's model contest in hopes that they can use the prize to buy one boy's grandmother paints that she desperately wants; however, their conflict with the group of boys from their school may have a negative effect on these plans.

If this sounds a little random or incoherent, it's perhaps because I haven't done it justice. Most of the actions of the boys make more sense in the context of the story than they do in a quick summary, and, if there seems to be a bit of randomness, we must remember, this is a Miike film, after all - some degree of strangeness is almost inevitable. Indeed, like almost any other Miike film, Nostalgia will, on several occasions, give you that wonderful, wonderful feeling of consternation that only dear Takashi can provide, whether it be during the scene of broomstick sodomy, the masturbation scene with a Japanese 50s-American-pop knockoff playing during it, or anywhere in between.

Despite these stylistic excesses, however, or perhaps even because of them, Nostalgia is nevertheless a film of surprising heart. Indeed, the movie's stranger moments seem, amazingly, to fit right into the picture as a whole, helping to emphasize the excitement and strangeness of a world viewed through the eyes of a child. Around these segments, however, are myriad tender and terribly observant moments. From what is probably the near-universal experience of examining parts of a pretty teacher other than (in the movie) her face during a class lecture to the various, seemingly all-important battles fought in the schoolyard (complete with pseudo-Spaghetti-Western theme music), Miike has his eye keenly trained on the ways and wonders of youth throughout Nostalgia, and the view he gives us is one startling not just because of its poignancy but also because of its universality.

Delivering this beautiful film to US audiences is the always-reliable Artsmagic, which has treated it just as well as its predecessor, Innocent Blood. Transfer-wise, everything checks out, with colors looking good and brightness, occasionally just a little to dark on other releases, quite pleasing here.

As for extras, what we get is comparable to what was described in my review of the first Young Thugs entry. To start things off, a few cast and crew filmographies are included, as well as the film's trailer and its original Japanese video box artwork with optional translation (I really think this is a cool touch and hope other companies will start including things like this more often).

Next is a 10-minute featurette, once again written and presented by Takako Tucker, Osaka native, on the people and culture of Osaka. It's comparable to the first featurette in style and content; however, I'd give this 'episode' the slight edge, though probably only because I'm more interested in culture than I am in history, which the first segment covered.

Finally, things conclude with another nice interview with director Takashi Miike, again exposing his eyes more than usual by only wearing semi-polarized sunglasses. As with all of these Artsmagic interviews, it's an interesting piece overall and well worth a watch for anyone who liked the film (which should be everyone, after seeing it).

So, while this may be getting a tad repetitive, I must again claim a substantial artistic victory for Takashi Miike. Young Thugs: Nostalgia is one of his best works, and I'm terribly, terribly happy to have it in my DVD collection. It may not be scary, but, with an October 26 release date, Young Thugs: Nostalgia is nevertheless a great Halloween treat.

UK site: http://www.artsmagic.co.uk/youngthugsnostalgia

US site: http://www.artsmagicdvd.com/youngthugsnostalgia