One of Suzuki’s most outwardly farcical efforts, Fighting Elegy subjects the histrionics of military training to an approach both cerebrally ironic and unabashedly slapstick—a sort of hybrid of Dr. Strangelove and Jerry Lewis. In the years leading up to World War II, Kiroku (Hideki Takahashi) is an Okayama middle-school student torn between lust for the daughter of his Catholic foster parents and a clashing impulse toward gang warfare and rogue militarization. That the two are perceived as mutually exclusive by Kiroku and the bullish crowd he acquaints himself with offers Suzuki his rich satirical terrain, where phallic military instruments and procedures exist alongside actual unwanted erections. Among the film’s many pleasures are its hyperbolic hand-to-hand combat sound effects, its jarring shifts between poised choreography and bumbling fight scenes, and the manic uncertainty of Takahashi’s performance.