Ten-year-old Toshio is used as a pawn by his scammer parents to stage car accidents and then extort money from drivers. As the family crisscrosses Japan to elude the law, Toshio escapes into an imaginary world of science fiction fantasy, hoping it will deliver him from his harrowing existence.

Eschewing the jagged experimentation of his earlier work, Nagisa Ôshima appears to be on softer, humanist terrain with this new-wave classic. But looks can be deceiving. Lent a devastating emotional charge through its pint-sized perspective, Boy is a lacerating critique of Japan’s postwar landscape.