Four students going through their sexual awakening, and fantasising about a classmate, prepare for their university admission exams. After meeting an inebriated teacher who shows them how to sublimate their repressed frustrations through singing bawdy songs, the group dives into the treacherous abyss of the imagination, blind to the moral consequences of their acts. Ōshima’s psychosexual drama, inspired by the writing of Tomomichi Soeda — who claimed that the bawdy songs represented the oppressed voices of the common man — constitutes a stern critique of the social expectations and pressures faced by young people. At the same time, it holds a mirror to the nihilism of their aspirations and their ideological vacuity, both precursors for unfettered violence.