新武林外传

该片讲述了发生在上世纪末一段纠缠在岁月浪潮中的情爱故事。一心想当诗人，改变命运的李五（朱亚文 饰），幸运地遇见连自己气味和影子都痴迷深爱的陈蕙（宋佳 饰），两人因爱而疯魔。一条毛裤，抵不过喧嚣现实地裹挟和撕扯，才华与情感凋零枯萎。爱亦成“毒”，有无解药？

拾粪老汉在田里捡到一条很漂亮的丝腰带，四顾见无人认领，便拴在了自己腰上。一照镜子，旧棉袄真刺眼，于是他从存钱罐里倒出钱币，上街买了一件顶好的缎面团花锦袍。酒馆店小二见他身穿锦袍腰系丝带，当他是有钱人赶忙上前招呼，不料一看他不相称的裤子和鞋子，立刻讥嘲起来。老汉受不了店小二的羞辱，回到家二话不说砸碎存钱罐，又去买了相配的裤子和靴子，这下，包括店小二在内的路人看他的目光均是艳羡，老汉一时得意洋洋。可是拾粪老汉这样一幅打扮，可怎么再拾粪哟！

1984年的夏天，空气中弥漫着慵懒自在的气息。17岁的埃里克（克里斯·斯坦福 Chris Stafford 饰）是一个刚刚升上高三的阳光男孩。利用假期，他和好友麦琪（蒂娜·霍尔摩斯 Tina Holmes 饰）找到一家快餐店打工。在此埃里克邂逅长于自己的男孩罗德（安德森·盖布里奇 Andersen Gabrych 饰）。罗德似乎对眼前这个略带羞涩的男孩颇有好感，他似无忌惮的挑逗让埃里克心慌意乱，却也渐渐发现自己喜欢上了罗德。艳阳高照的俄亥俄州，男孩与男孩的情欲纠葛由此展开……本片荣获1998年洛杉矶电影节观众奖最佳影片、评委会大奖最佳男主角（Chris Stafford）、最佳美国影片和最佳剧本奖；1998年旧金山同性恋国际电影节观众奖最佳影片。

*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.