Third Base (1978)
Third and Shinbunbu embark on a plan to make money by Third becoming a pimp and Shinbunbu a prostitute.
Watch Trailer
Free Trial Channels
Cast
Reviews
Brilliant and touching
This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.
The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.
Third (Saado in Japanese) character played by Toshiyuki Nagashima is a third base man in a high school baseball team. He has a friend Shinbunbu ( Aiko Morishita ) who is an editor for the school news paper. Third and Shinbunbu embarks on a plan to make money by Third becoming a pimp and Shinbunbu a prostitute. He gets caught and ends up in juvenile delinquent hall where he experiences life he would have not experienced if he remained in high school. The movie was targeted for a high school audience with what would have been an outrageous adventure for a high school student for the time in Japan. Such occurrence is no longer novel in Japan today where high school girls become their own pimps, but back in 1978 the theme of the movie was quite shocking and sensational. This movie was also the debut movie for Aiko Morishita who along with Nagashima went on to enjoy a long career in the TV and movie business.