Muri shinjû: Nihon no natsu

Combines the political commitment and narrative experimentalism of Godard with the lush, deep-focus aesthetic of Ford and Kurosawa.

I wouldn't know what to think of the film if I hadn't recently researched the U.S. occupation of Japan. Oshima presents Japanese youth as obsessed with matching the brutality and aimlessness of their American counter-parts.

When a sociopathic, loner American sniper attacks a Japanese city, the local gangs can't decide whether to react to him as a life-style savior or an imperialist invader.

Magnificently formal shot compositions that almost bring to mind the "Metaphyisical style" of de Cherico's paintings.

As is characteristic of Oshima, the only redemption is through sex.