‘Wakamusha’: An austere portrait of toxic masculinity

In a country where the median age of the population is nearly 50, youth is a relative concept.

The lead actors in Ryutaro Ninomiya’s “Wakamusha” — the title of which translates as “young warrior” — are all in their late 20s, yet the characters they play act like they’ve only just reached the age of majority. A trio of childhood friends bound together more by force of habit than affection, they work in low-paid jobs and spend their downtime traipsing around like overgrown delinquents, craving something that might take the edge off the boredom.

For the voluble, long-haired Eiji (Rion Takahashi), this hunger for stimulation is directed outward — whether at his sullen pal Wataru (Ryota Bando) or at strangers. In an early scene, he confronts an older, tougher man (played by former pro wrestler Yukio Sakaguchi) for smoking in a public place. Later, he accosts a pair of young women who titter at seeing him stage a kiss — tongues and all — with his male accomplice, Mitsunori (Naoya Shimizu).

In both cases, Eiji’s opprobrium is purely performative. He dusts himself off from the former encounter and immediately sparks up a cigarette of his own; his accusations of homophobia during the latter are a prelude to asking the unfortunate ladies on a date.

He delivers his tirades with a theatrical flair, suggesting that he rehearsed his lines in front of the mirror at home (possibly with his top off). It’s an impressive — and impressively irritating — performance by Takahashi. The first time I watched “Wakamusha,” I found his character insufferable. On a second viewing, I could appreciate the craft.

Eiji’s friends are less openly obnoxious, though not necessarily any more likable. Wataru, the film’s nominal protagonist, spends most of the time locked in a deep, angry sulk, fueled by impotent loathing for his stepfather (Kosuke Toyohara). Mitsunori, who works as a caregiver at a retirement home, seems more personable. However, the dead look in his eyes suggests that he’s just learned to play at being nice.

Even compared to Ninomiya’s previous work, “Wakamusha” is a difficult film, as if it was designed to get stuck in your throat. It needles viewers as relentlessly as Eiji hounds his victims. Ninomiya’s screenplay keeps circling back obsessively to particular themes and motifs, often repeating the same lines of dialogue in different contexts, to ironic (and numbing) effect. His austere aesthetic — favoring long takes and static camerawork, with no musical soundtrack — offers little comfort.

The film makes an interesting companion piece to the director’s earlier “Minori, on the Brink” (2019), whose protagonist was a young woman chafing against the expectations of a patriarchal society. Wataru and his comrades are still testing the boundaries of the adult — and specifically masculine — identities they’re expected to inhabit. They may seem to have a gender advantage, but the pressures they face are just as liable to make a person snap.

“What should I do till I die?” a character asks during the film’s closing moments. Ninomiya doesn’t offer any easy answers.

At 37, the director probably still qualifies as a young filmmaker himself. But “Wakamusha” — the fifth feature in an increasingly impressive filmography — is the work of an artist who knows exactly what he’s doing.