爱情与阴谋的较量

发丘一族后人张赢川在一次探墓寻药发生意外后带着侄女小野隐居，叔侄两人相依为命却争执不断，小野一心想知道父亲去世的真相，背着叔叔以身犯险寻找谜团，进入掘子军守护的千年古墓，引起掘子军和发丘一族的斗争。为救小野，张赢川使出浑身解数与掘子军抗衡。到底谁能重新制定江湖规则，血雨腥风的迷窟对决谁又将付出血的代价？

新娘元如意在洞房花烛夜全家被杀，自己被一蒙面人救出。一年后，如意在消息贩子包大庭口中得知，父亲为救百姓当年杀死了一个贼寇，贼寇之子铁背驼爷为报父仇血洗元家。在包大庭的帮助下，如意寻找敌人的弱点，一个个铲除了铁背驼爷的爪牙。铁背驼爷设了圈套抓到了如意，包大庭拼死相救，此时如意才知道，包大庭就是当年那个救出自己的蒙面人。而包大庭向如意坦白，自己曾经把元家的信息卖给铁背驼爷，事后知道实情后悔不已。如意宽恕了这个既害过自己又救过自己的人，只身面对与铁背驼爷的决战。如意就像一个顽强的战士，最终取胜。就在刀斩仇人时，她看到了驼爷的孩子。冤冤相报何时了，仇恨就像无底深渊，而如意不愿永陷深渊之中，止杀离去。

住在黄土高原盗户村的百姓，为了吃饭参加过白莲教、太平天国、拜过观音及耶苏和阿拉。久旱不雨，连盗户村也被抢。县城里只要发生无头案就由村民轮流去坐监顶罪。小豆儿和鸡蛋两个孩子替人坐牢时被捉差，到考场调换考卷，两人不但顺手牵羊带了官印上的两颗金珠子回来，还救了一具活尸体——传说中出没神秘、常回来为了报仇的三顺叔。没想到好处没得到，官方势力开始追杀他们，丐帮老大刘三也要捉他们，而他们发现金珠子与三顺叔都是假的，只有靠自己在生活中磨练出的本领，逃出这一劫。

*Shinjuku Mad* was one ofKoji Wakamatsu's six films from 1970. Grim and gritty, stark and steady, burdened with anti-moralizing, generously padded with sex, and totally redeemed by a soundtrack that needs to be released NOW. I knew nothing about this film, loading it up on to my laptop, and every last one of this film's sixty-sixty minutes kept me riveted.Bear with me. The film opens with the band cycling through a jazzy rave-up, the black and images depict dead Japanese throughout a modern city. From the alleyways of the slums, to center of the park, you catch glimpses of bodies everywhere. This introduction is capped off by a lingering shot of a blood-soaked naked woman, face down. By this point, the band has reached a sort of peak. There's a cut, the band changes the direction of the song a bit, and then we're treated to a series of exterior shots from downtown, the lunch hour, maybe. You see a lot of storefronts and stairwells, people moving about. All of the people in these splices are done in negative image.What follows can only be described as harrowing. After the credits, the reel switches to color. We're treated to the on-screen stabbing of a young man in a toga, his attackers strip his special lady-friend of her toga, spend about two minutes smearing her breasts with still-warm blood, and then take turns raping her. She doesn't seem to put up much of a fight. The scene is lensed with all of the enthusiasm of a television spot for a whole foods market.Well, that's a fucked up way to start a movie. If you're still reading, I'll have you know the brutality eases up a little, but the camera's tendency to seek out each scene's more lurid details is relentless. The band never lets up, either. Another constant feature of the film is the protagonist's alienation from society. That's a pretty dated-concept, in a way. This film is cashing in on what could loosely be called the Existential demographic in 1970's Japan. Parts of it could have been written by Oe. Others by Mishima. It definitely, at times, addresses a bit of that lingering air of revolution, but more on that later.The father of the kid stabbed in Technicolor shows up in the nest reel, in the same apartment his son was murdered in. This confused, grieving father asks a totally baked Shoko Asahara for information about the events leading up to his son's death. The long-haired no-goodnik is toking on a Sharpie-sized doobie. He gets so fucking high he passes out and the dad is left there in the empty apartment, getting a major contact-buzz.So, the plot is basically that kind of exchange in larger and larger settings, intercut with glorious shots of the disillusioned father walking through industrial slums. The father, searching for the "Why" to his son's death goes on his quest and pisses just about everyone he comes into contact with off. He goes into subway stations and totally kills some beatniks' buzzes. Then he bullies a Hare Krishna ROCK AND ROLL SUPERSTAR and his belly-dancing percussionist at a park. Then he heads off to a bar, and we're treated to what must have been Tokyo's Greatest Garage Band getting low-down and sleazy here. This scene pretty much sums up what the film is about. As you dig the scuzz and the fuzz, the camera catches all manner of degeneracy and wanton reefer-use. And the bar has no less than three groups of people making out. And they get excessive with the groping.Eventually, the father catches the ringleader of the vicious band of murderer-rapists. "Shinjuku Mad," is his name. After an unbelievably long and convoluted exchange between the protagonist and Shinjuku Mad, it comes out that Mad and the boys are rebelling against all of Japan. It's open season on everyone but them. His son was only a casualty, nothing personal. Their intent is to go on rebelling against society through random acts of violence against people and property.After going through all the trouble of finding Shinjuku Mad, the old man's mind is blown by revolution for revolution's sake. After a few pummellings, he manages to turn the fight around. He winds up leaving with a nude girl that had been tied to a post for the entire scene.He goes back to the apartment his son was murdered in to find his special lady-friend naked with six other dope-smoking cats grooving on free love and blue balls.He decides he's happier with Shinjuku Mad alive and kicking, the band is at another one of its high points, and the camera pans out to the railroad yard, telephones wires, and the bare sides of modern buildings.That was Japan, thirty-seven years ago.