狂熱の季節 (1960)

The Warped Ones (狂熱の季節, Kyōnetsu no kisetsu, aka Season of Heat, Wild Love-Makers and The Weird Lovemakers) is a 1960 Japanese Sun Tribe film directed by Koreyoshi Kurahara and starring Tamio Kawachi, Eiji Go, Yuko Chishiro and Noriko Matsumoto. It was produced and distributed by the Nikkatsu Company. The story concerns the young hoodlum Akira, his friends, their transgressions and specifically their revenge on the couple that got him sent to jail, a reporter and his fiancée. When the fiancée finds herself pregnant by Akira she enlists his help with her finance who has become distant since the attack.

Often compared by critics to Breathless (1960) and Rebel Without a Cause (1955), it is a stylistic departure from studio norms, driven by its jazz score and employing filmic techniques described as being as energetic and frantic as its characters. It achieved success in Japan and was followed by Black Sun (1964), featuring many of the same cast, crew and characters, with the addition of acclaimed drummer Max Roach to the soundtrack. Audubon Films released The Warped Ones in the United States in 1963 where it was marketed as a sexploitation film.

Synopsis

Criminal and jazz aficionado Akira (Tamio Kawachi) and his prostitute girlfriend Yuki (Yuko Chishiro) are arrested when they are spotted fleecing foreigners in a jazz club by a reporter named Kashiwagi (Hiroyuki Nagato). In jail, Akira meets Masaru (Eiji Go) and on their release they and Yuki resume criminal activities. They spot Kashiwagi and his artist fiancée, Fumiko (Noriko Matsumoto), hit him with a stolen car and kidnap her. They take her to a remote beach where Akira rapes her while Masaru and Yuki fornicate in the ocean.

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