Set in the thirties, this is Suzuki's satiric tirade against the growing militarism that was to send young men like himself to war, steeped in a belief in the mutability of all things so that they might better accept their own violent deaths. "Suzuki was obsessed with the idea that all human endeavors are foolish," Tadao Sato writes in Currents in Japanese Cinema, "yet if one affirms this foolishness, it becomes all the more interesting. Thus, he sought meaning in the humor of mutability, and in his films humor replaced catharsis.... (This) is best demonstrated in (Elegy to Violence), a memorable masterpiece...full of wild, entertaining fights, fantasy, and humor..." Kiroku Nambu is a high school student torn between his affection for a young Christian girl Michiko and his restless sexuality, which finds expression in street brawls that he orchestrates like some kind of movie director. Realizing the ridiculousness of his punk violence while he revels in it, Kiroku in the end sets off for Tokyo and the real thing-presumably the Sino-Japanese war.