Youth of the Beast

A kaleidoscopic fantasia that contains "youth" and "beast" only insofar as 1963 pop/youth culture was that violently upstart thing, not unlike the yakuza? And so Youth of the Beast is a yakuza tale with a premise like Akira Kurosawa's Yojinbo, but denuded of an easy definition of which side is which. It stars Suzuki's iconic '60s regular Jo Shishido, with his dare-you-to-call-them-out artificial cheek implants like new acting blasphemy. There are drug-addled whores, gunfights in a new colour apocalypse, and at least one alien landscape: the sudden mind-searing eruption of a sulphur yellow desert like an action-figure playset with overspill of unbridled lust. (Eureka Entertainment)