If You Were Young: Rage

If You Were Young: Rage (君が若者なら, Kimi ga wakamono nara), also known as Our Dear Buddies,[1] is a 2000 Japanese film financed, produced, directed and co-written by Kinji Fukasaku.[2] The film stars Tetsuo Ishidate and Gin Maeda as a pair of Tokyo day laborers who along with three other friends pool their money together to buy a dump truck, which they dub "Independence No. 1".[3] The film was, for a time, thought to be lost.[4]

If You Were Young: Rage
Directed byKinji Fukasaku
Produced bySeishi Matsumaru
Saburō Mutō
Norio Sunoda
Written byKinji Fukasaku
Koji Matsumoto
Takehiro Nakajima
StarringTetsuo Ishidate
Gin Maeda
Music byTaku Izumi
CinematographyTakamoto Ezure
Edited byKeiichi Uraoka
Production
company
Bungakuza
Shinsei Eigasha
Release date
August 5, 2000
Running time
89 minutes
CountryJapan
LanguageJapanese

Plot

After working in a factories for low pay for years, Asao and his long-time friend Kikuo Higuchi buy their own dump truck and call it "Independence No. 1". They pay monthly installments on it from their profits working for a transportation company. While enjoying their newfound happiness, they think back on their old friends Kiyoshi Yabe, a fisherman's son, Ichiro, a factory worker's son, and Ryuji, the son of pioneer farmers.

Years earlier, following the closing of the factory, the five are living together in the men's dorm until it and the factory are auctioned off and they are kicked out. That night Ryuji has his debut boxing match and his friends get arrested for fighting with hecklers. Ryuji fights with the police in order to be placed in the cell with his friends for the night, where they hatch the plan to pool their money for the next year to buy their own dump truck. When released, they dedicate themselves to their respective jobs and save their paychecks.

In the present, Kiyoshi's mother and sister visit him in prison after he falls behind on his payments for the truck and gets caught by the police trying to steal merchandise from a warehouse. Asao recalls when he was robbed of his earnings and Kiyoshi prevented him from taking a knife and killing them in revenge. Ichiro has gotten a girl pregnant multiple times and must borrow money from Asao and Kikuo after already having taken back the money he was supposed to contribute to the truck. Ryuji was beaten to death by police for interfering with their assault on striking workers. His sister tells Asao and Kikuo that they should keep his money for the truck and gives them a rear-view mirror decoration of a pair of boxing gloves Ryuji had bought for them.

After ten days of rain, Asao and Kikuo are desperate for work to make their installment payment so they accept a gravel transportation job from their boss, angering the striking workers at their company. After Asao scraps the truck against a rock wall, the two men get into a fight. Asao apologizes, then goes out drinking at Ryuji's sister's bar and sleeps with her. The striking workers spray paint the friends' truck as "Strikebreaker No. 1" so they are forced to repaint it.

Kiyoshi escapes from prison and hides out with Asao to recover from a gunshot wound from a cop he killed during the escape. When Yukiko finds him, he pulls a knife and demands the keys to the truck from Asao, then drops it when Asao says that Kiyoshi must kill him first. Kiyoshi admits that he never became a fisherman because of his fear of the sea and says that he might be able to start over if he sees it. Kikuo threatens to tell the police but Asao punches him and takes Kiyoshi away in the truck. Asao drives through the night but Kiyoshi dies just as they reach the sea. Asao drives off a cliff toward the sea but they crash on the beach below and Kiyoshi is burned in the wreckage while Asao climbs out. Asao is arrested and ends up in prison. Kikuo and Yukiko meet at the wreckage site, where Kikuo finds the boxing gloves decoration and decides to start his life over as well.

Cast

References
  1. https://jfdb.jp/title/7109
  2. Walkow, Marc (January–February 2016). "The History of Postwar Japan as Told by a Radical Anarchist: Gangster-Film Maestro and Champion of Underdogs Kinji Fukasaku Strove for a Ferocious Realism". Film Comment.
  3. Lim, Dennis (April 13, 2004). "Film". The Village Voice.
  4. Mes, Tom (January 22, 2003). "In Memoriam Kinji Fukasaku (1930 – 2003) K". Midnight Eye: Visions of Japanese Cinema.
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