Takashi Miike refers to Young Thugs: Nostalgia as his "favorite movie ever." Unfortunately, from both a critic's and entusiast's standpoint, I could not agree with the director in his assertion. To me, Nostalgia was a semi-biographical look at Miike's childhood, however, not a milestone in his filmmaking career.

 

Detailing the coming of maturity for a young boy, Nostalgia primarily focuses on the dysfunctional settings of a family background in Osaka, Japan, early 1970's. Similar to many of his later (and well known) films such as Visitor Q, Happiness of the Katakuris and Gozu, the family environment is more of an asylum than a nurturing place, harbouring intense violent outbursts, loss of respect and comedic performances by key characters to lighten the mood.

 

Nostalgia can easily be broken down into 3 components that outline the boy's coming of age: his confrontations with the neighborhood bully, his desire to impress his father and his need to fit in amongst his peers at school. The most successful aspect of the film is showing the progression of these events as the boy grows from an immature being to a rational young man by confronting these scenarios. A sense of reverse aging is added to the storyline as the boy sees his actions become more relevant by witnessing the ridiculous relationships adults carry on with their "loved ones". Whether it be the boy's father cheating on the wife, or his school teacher's heart being broken by her boyfriend, the boy is able to develop a sense of importance for the feelings of those around him.

 

Moralistic viewpoints aside, there is little left to be desired in Nostalgia. The storyline is often dry and slow to progress and Miike's usual dose of violence and off the wall grossouts are both absent, replaced by the more sobering mood of the film's setting. Pardon me for getting a bit depressed during this film, but I've grown accustomed to Miike providing at least one outlet as to where the viewer can draw a sense of excitement or urgency from. Nostalgia provides very little of either, somewhat floating along to the middle of obscurity and irrelevance.

 

Luckily, ArtsMagic once again saves the day with some rather neat extras on the disc, including an interview with Miike where he describes his feelings on the film, an original trailer for the film, biographies and filmographies, as well as an interesting short on life in the city of Osaka. The short on Osaka is very well shot and in some ways more interesting than the film itself!

 

By way of Miike films, Nostalgia is one of his least impressive in my eyes. Although a biographical piece on Miike seemed interesting enough, the film doesn't deliver by way of keeping the viewer's interest. A bit of jazzing up of the disc by ArtsMagic is a welcome touch, however, the viewer will have to ultimately decide whether the ends justify the means of this film.