“Starting from within the framework of a commercial sex and violence picture (long before the current Hollywood vogue, this was already a genre in Japan), Cruel Stories of Youth treats the subject of juvenile delinquency in its political and psychological dimensions. It is far above tabloid level sociology: its violence is truly provocative. The story contrasts the lives of two young lovers, who attempt to live freely outside the moral boundaries of their society, with those of the girl's older sister and a doctor, both of whom had been radicals in their student days. Oshima states one of the film's thematic intentions: ‘The material is youthful sex and violence, but behind that the Japanese can easily understand there is the disappointment and depression at the failure of the post war democratic revolution.'.... (Oshima's first film to become popular among Japanese filmgoers, Cruel Stories of Youth also struck Western viewers with its similarities to the French New Wave.) Ian Cameron wrote, ‘A couple in conversation as they walked down a busy street were shown in a hand-held backward tracking shot lasting some minutes: very New Wave but in scope and color.'” PFA Tribute to Nagisa Oshima, 1972.