Young Thugs - Nostalgia is a sequel to Young Thugs - Innocent Blood, but essentially it's a prequel. This time the view belongs to movie makers, with the blessing of Riichi Nakaba who wrote the original novel for Young Thugs.

Riichi is a little boy living in Osaka and he's having a hard time looking the crisis between his mom and dad. His father Toshio is a violent bastard, who kicks and beats not only Riichi's mom but also his female teacher. This reflects naturally in Riichi's life in general and even the boy almost hates his dad, they have lots of same aspects. One of the most important is drifting into fights.

Young Thugs - Nostalgia is everything that the first film should have been. We are talking about the movie which is the Takashi Miike's favorite of his own works. I don't question this statement at all. Main characters of the movie are the children, so there are not the director's craziest scenes involved. There is violence, though it's very mild - at least in japanese standards. And there is a scene, where the broom is sticked up deep in ... well, ass. Strangest thing is that it seems perfectly normal - even in this movie.

The movie doesn't have a clear plot, it just tells a astonishingly sympathetic story of Riichi's and his friends (many same characters as in Young Thugs - Innocent Blood) childhood in the end of 60's. Character development is again top-notch and also this time we can find the good sides of most unpleasant people. Last scene tells in its simpleness more than most dissertations about the conflicts and complicated situations of father-child relationship. Young Thugs - Nostalgia has so carefully constructed structure that you just have to admire the work of Miike and his crew. When it comes to the cast, Naoto Takenaka(Toshio) is most memorable thanks to his energetic and manic acting. Also, Shonosuke Shofukutei (Riichi) is pretty impressive find when looking at his age.

Young Thugs - Nostalgia is almost on the same line with other five-star childhood portrayals. It differs from the others, that it leaves particurarly good taste in your mouth.

The DVD release is very much alike with Young Thugs - Innocent Blood and the technical quality is at least reasonable. Extras include Takashi Miike's interview, trailer, original cover art and feature about the Osaka People.