Masumura's debut film was about restless youth not so much alienated as abandoned by an avaricious older generation. In its unsentimental lyricism, Kisses broke with the past, and in its fresh (in both senses) style, it was a forerunner (lately called the "missing link") to the New Wave. Kinichi (Hiroshi Kawaguchi), a taciturn lad, and Akiko (Hitomi Nozoe), a struggling artists' model, meet at the prison where both their fathers are serving time. On a borrowed motorcycle on borrowed time, they spend a day at the races and the beach, lose and find each other, while for both, the specter looms of papa's bail and the sacrifices they will have to make for it. Life, as Kinichi bravely ventures, may be "boring," but this film never is, with asymmetrical urban framing and a camera on the run ("Let's crash!"). (JB)