Set in the 1930s, this is Suzuki's satiric tirade against the militarism that sent young men like himself to war, having been 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 film humor replaced catharsis...(Elegy to Violence is) 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 and his restless sexuality, which finds expression in street brawls that he orchestrates like some kind of brash movie director. Realizing the ridiculousness of his punk violence as he revels in it, Kiroku in the end sets off for Tokyo and the real thing-presumably the Sino-Japanese War.