Kisses (1957) DVD

Masumura's 1957 debut is an evocative, unsentimental and - for the time - daring story of doomed teenage love and angst that sent a shock wave through Japanese cinema in much the same manner as Godard's films did in Europe. With its liberated hand-held camera, stripped down narrative and provocative subject-matter, KISSES marks the arrival of a major and confrontational talent. A young boy and girl - a bakery delivery boy and an artist's model - meet while visiting their respective fathers in prison. His father is serving a term for an "election day violation," hers for stealing money to pay her mother's hospital bills. (And not wanting her mother to know that her husband's in jail, the young girl contemplates prostitution to raise the money for her father's bail so he can visit his wife in the hospital). The young lovers soon embrace both each other and their mutual alienation. Shrugging off their responsibilities they jump on a motorbike, head for the beach for a fleeting moment of romance.