Akutaro marked the beginning of Suzuki'scollaboration with the great art director Takeo Kimura, which continuedthrough many of his major films. By comparison with a stylized film likeTokyo Drifter, a more lyrical treatment of the Suzuki nihilist isoffered in this Taisho period (mid-'teens) equivalent of Rebel Without aCause. Dazzling filmmaking traces Togo Konno's growth from anirrepressible bad boy whistling Carmen to an intensely romantic teenagetough. As his sexuality blossoms, Togo (Ken Yamanouchi) comes up againstthe absurd, protofascist disciplinary code of his peers, who haveadopted the hypocrisies of the adults around them as a weapon. Still, hepersists in his new-found sexual pleasure, first in a humorously stagedlove scene that is neither fantasy nor reality, then in an affair withthe daughter of the local doctor. She introduces him to Strindberg, heintroduces her to the Eternal Farewell. Doomed love is a given. LikeTogo, who aspires to write trash ("literature for fools"),Suzuki himself is a Japanese movie brat; his brackish, jazz-likedirection feeds melodrama with anger, humor, and genuinesadness.