You can’t ignore the cover art for Crazed Fruit. Specifically, the one that graces the Criterion Collection’s edition. You know, the one with Mie Kitahara’s beautiful back as she looks past you? Would you believe that two additional faces framing her? Probably not - but they’re there; watching and wanting.
A terrible amount of watching and wanting happens in Shintaro Ishihara’s timelessly cool film. Haruji, Natsuhisa and their friends watch random girls over the summer by the lake until Eri floats into their lives and all is simple. A pretty girl is smitten with the attention lavished on her by a young boy. This boy’s older brother doesn’t like this. Now, the “wanting” gets complicated fairly quickly. What is direct is the enjoyment Ishihara shares in watching all these young, cool Japanese kids enjoy the sun and money that shines on them over the course of the summer. While the concept of the “Sun Tribe” might not ring any immediate bells, it’s a term that can be thrown around as a blanket concept for many Instagram influencer accounts that spotlight their frolics in pools with inflatable flamingos. The film becomes especially nasty and delicious as we see the growing jealousy and machinations the older Natsuhisa harbors when his younger inexperience bro lands the babe.
Kitahara has a beauty that shines and becomes terrifyingly all consuming for the brothers as tension -both sexual and familial - reach breaking point. The watching and wanting continues until it drives them all crazy. You have to wonder, was it the sun? Was it just too hot?
Crazed Fruit is a perfect summer film - it teases, inspires and refreshes the soul with promises of long languid days.
