The literal translation of the original title of Koreyoshi Kurahara's 1960 cinematic assault, now known as The Warped Ones, was Season of Heat. When it played in English speaking countries, the title got changed to The Weird Lovemakers and then, when that didn't quite work, to its final form, The Warped Ones. Why three titles for one movie? Because distributors had no idea how to sell the film outside of Japan and Season of Heat didn't sound like a title that would pull in the youth audience they were seeking. As a title, though, it makes a lot more sense, both literally and metaphorically: a piercing sun bakes down in practically every scene and the lead characters' relentless sexuality broods over every moment. But The Warped Ones, as a title, isn't far off the mark either, even as does imply there's something wrong, or distorted, about the characters when they would argue, in fact, that it's everyone else that isn't normal (or, perhaps, too normal for their own good).

The story in The Warped Ones begins before we ever see a speaking character in the film. That is, we see the movie's true main characters first, famous American jazz musicians. They appear in a collage as jazz music fills the soundtrack, a collage soon revealed to be the graphic design at the top of a jazz bar that our speaking characters inhabit with devious intentions. Those two characters, Akira (Tamio Kawaji), and Fumiko (Noriko Matsumoto), are at the bar for two reasons: One, Akira loves jazz music and surrounds himself with it (infuses himself is probably more accurate) and two, they plan to roll a tourist for his money. Fumiko, a local prostitute, engages with a tourist at the bar, keeping him distracted long enough for Akira to lift his wallet. A crime reporter, Kashiwagi (Hiroyuki Nagato), rats them out to the police and the two get arrested, taken away in a screaming, violent frenzy until the opening credits finally appear and tell the story of Akira in reform school. There, he befriends another wild youth, Masaru (Eiji Go), and when the two are released, they immediately turn back to crime.

After stealing a car, they pick up Fumiko and an American john, drop them off at a hotel and wait around the corner for her to come out with his wallet. When she's back in the car, they joyride, Akira in the front, driving and listening to jazz, Masaru and Fumiko in the back, pushing and pulling, feeling each other out. That's when Akira spots Kashiwagi walking along the pier with his girlfriend, Yuki (Yuko Chishiro), and both he and Fumiko are ready for payback. Akira turns the car around, slams Kashiwagi with the driver side door, grabs Yuki, and speeds off. They head to the beach where Akira will take Yuki by force and Masaru and Fumiko will head to the ocean and begin a relationship doomed to failure in more ways than one. That this becomes the basis for a strange "Couples Movie" may be hard to believe but when Kashiwagi reenters the picture, it does. What starts as a bold look at the lives of criminal youth becomes a movie about relationships, though not the kind found in middle class suburbia.

Director Koreyoshi Kurahara, writer Nobuo Yamada, editor Akira Suzuki, cinematographer Yoshio Mamiya, and composer/arranger Toshiro Mayuzumi, worked together on The Warped Ones to create something quite different than found in the usual youth culture films of the fifties and sixties. It isn't really the story that drives the movie, it's how the movie is made that drives it. The jazz music, both composed and assembled by Mayuzumi, paces the film and delivers its mood while the camerawork of Mamiya and the editing of Suzuki, tie together the moods of the characters. There is a frantic and rushed energy to the film that places it squarely in the modern world. Very few movies, even today, have the kind of relentless drive as this one, and it's not by mistake. While shots in the movie may look haphazard and chaotic, they took quite a bit of planning and setup to get right. For instance, when the characters joyride along the pier, a series of shots occur that seem startling to viewers used to Hollywood cars sitting stationary in front of rear projection screens. The camera, from the front of the car looking at the driver, Akira, quickly swivels to show the view he sees and we suddenly see the front of the car. In other words, that initial setup, looking at Akira, would, we assume, come from another car in front filming the action. When the camera swivels, and there is no camera car there, we realize the cameraman must be on the hood of the car! This kind of setup runs throughout the film, as Kurahara went to great lengths to successfully translate a sense of chaos and freneticism to the screen.

The Warped Ones never caught on in the states like other international films exploring the subculture, like Breathless, and it may be, in part, because it is so much more daring than Breathless and so unforgiving of its characters and the audience for looking in. And it's one of the few films that somehow fashions itself along the lines of a musical piece, a jazz piece, without betraying cinema in the process. The film itself is an extended jazz piece, improvised but structured, freewheeling but disciplined. Above all, it is both engaging and alienating, a duality that challenges the viewer to either understand the director's intention (or think they do) or abandon it in favor of experiencing it as an abstract with no meaning at all. In one moment in the movie, Akira turns a splatter style painting upside down, changing the intent of the artist, subverting it to the viewer. The Warped Ones is that rare movie where its director, Koreyoshi Kurahara, invites its viewers to do the same.

Producers: Takeshi Yamamoto Director: Koreyoshi Kurahara Writers: Nobuo Yamada Music: Toshirô Mayuzumi Cinematography: Yoshio Mamiya Film Editor: Akira Suzuki Production Design: Kazuhiko Chiba Cast: Tamio Kawaji (Akira), Eiji Gô (Masaru), Noriko Matsumoto (Fumiko), Yuko Chishiro (Yuki), Hiroyuki Nagato (Kashiwagi)

By Greg Ferrara