Suzuki's debut filmfor Nikkatsu-a studio that specialized in films for the emerging youthmarket in Japan-was a pop-music B film built around its already populartheme song. Set On the Waterfront in Yokohama, it revolves around twobrothers, the older, a fish peddler who dreams of returning to the opensea, and the younger, a jockey under pressure from mobsters to take afall. When he accidentally does fall, his troubles begin. The four filmsin our series that precede Suzuki's 1963 "breakthrough" film,Youth of the Beast (see January 27), offer us an opportunity to watchthe progression (or is it digression?) of Suzuki's style. His trademarkexcesses may be little in evidence in this film, but as The JapanFoundation notes, "its depiction of mental instability provides ahint of what is to come." Suzuki directed Victory Is Mine under hisreal name, Seitaro Suzuki.