Based on the shocking story of a young Japanese couple jailed for throwing their ten-year old son into traffic in order to extort money from unwitting drivers, Boy offers an indictment of the Japanese family as an inherently corrupt and exploitative intergenerational trap while depicting a sympathetic portrait of an intense struggle for survival and dignity. One of Oshima's most beautiful, restrained and accessible films, Boy is set apart from his more radical and experimental work by its classicism of form and its use of an intensely linear narrative to delve the extreme emotional depths into which the characters are perilously thrown. Making brilliant use of widescreen cinematography, Boy sets the family's cross-country wanderings within a remarkable series of expressive landscapes and cityscapes.