The Weird Lovemakers / Roughneck

THE WEIRD LOVEMAKERS (KYONETSU NO KISETSU aka THE WARPED ONES), 1960, Janus Films, 75 min. Dir. Koreyoshi Kurahara. Delinquent trio Tamio Kawaji, Eiji Go and Noriko Matsumoto victimize a straight young couple, reporter Hiroyuki Nagato and fiancée Yuko Chiyo. Kawaji subsequently becomes obsessed with Chiyo, whom he makes pregnant. As a result, the simultaneously repulsed/attracted Chiyo forms an uneasy triangle with violent Kawaji and square, cuckolded beau Nagato. In Japanese with English subtitles.

ROUGHNECK (ARAKURE) 1969, Nikkatsu, 86 min. Dir. Yasuharu Hasebe. When not cooking up scams with his buddies, Kobayashi develops a crush on Fuji’s disgusted sister, Masako Izumi. But soon the young hoods run afoul of their underworld idols when they rob the wrong gang, led by brutal boss Jotaro Togami. When Kobayashi’s pals start to bite the dust, he hooks up with a more traditional yakuza (Ryoji Hayama) to retaliate. In Japanese with English subtitles.