Japanuary 2022: Yoshishige Yoshida
Yoshishige Yoshida's debut, Good-for-Nothing, possesses almost all of the hallmarks of the Japanese New Wave and Sun Tribe films. Young people caught up in a world that could not care much about them, a jazzy score, and a sense of doom looming beneath the surface. However, Yoshida's script and direction go against expectations in some clever ways.
Explosions of sex and violence, or general rebelliousness, are suggested more so than depicted here. We do not bear witness to wealthy boys flaunting floral apparel, although we still spend some time on the beach. Instead, we follow a group of boys from differing social classes. Toshio is the group leader and essentially has an unlimited money supply because…