Kisses(Kuchizuke)

What induced Oshima Nagisa to proclaim “a powerful irresistible force has arrived in Japanese Cinema” is Masumura Yasuzo’s debut feature – a moody, unsentimental tale of a fleeting romance. Encountered when visiting their respective fathers in prison, alienated teenage boy and girl bond through their mutual misfortunes, spending a day at the beach on a borrowed motorcycle and on borrowed time. A stripped down narrative imaginatively shot in liberated camera brimmed with swinging moods and impulsive energy, Kisses left a love mark as a forerunner to the Japanese New Wave.