"Oh, Michiko, I will not masturbate. I fight to vent my desires!"
Some have commented that while homo sapiens did not evolve directly from chimpanzees, they are our closest relative, and their own capacity for violence is telling. The point of it was to compare them to the bonobo, which is regarded as a much gentler, more empathetic species, one that is more interested in lolling about and having sex rather than dominating one another, and to wonder what the state of the world had we descended from them. While that's probably massively oversimplified, I thought of it while watching this film, because Suzuki's main point, often crudely made, seems to be that sexual frustration leads to violence.
There is a lot of juvenile, immature behavior from the men in this film, which is of course the point, but it wasn't all that enjoyable to watch. The lead character hides his boner several times and there are asinine fighting sequences, usually without any kind of honor, e.g. Kicks to the nuts and gouging the face. It seemed like there needed to be a contrast within the film to the rival gangs of rowdies who have a prohibition against girls because they "make men sissies." Meanwhile, Suzuki and his editor looked like they were high while they were cutting some of these scenes, like the one at the new school. There is a link to Japanese militarism and a specific reference at the end, but it felt tacked on and underdeveloped, just like the romance, which lessened the impact.
