希望村的小学破烂不堪，村中在外当老板的杨刚答应了赞助十万块钱，村长经过斟酌，让憨厚朴实的钢蛋去城里拿回捐助款。在进城的长途车上遇到了拦路抢劫的一帮笨贼，和一位救子心切的父亲路四林，二人合力把劫匪赶下车，在混乱之中，钢蛋和路四林的物品应差阳错的被调包。 钢蛋进城后拿到捐助款就赶往回村的车站，在路上被车上的三名笨贼抢走了捐助款，于是开始追查笨贼的下落，几番周折找到笨贼的窝点。 路四林为了拿回自己的东西，四处打听，最后得知钢蛋已经前往笨贼的窝点。 三帮人巧合的在笨贼窝点相聚，钢蛋和路四林将笨贼们绳之于法，拿着捐助款回到了村里，修盖了村里的学校。

木偶片。影片通过描写帝国主义反对画和平鸽子，揭露帝国主义玩弄假和平，真备战的罪恶阴谋。

故事发生在二战时期的一个美国沿海小镇，八岁小男孩Pepper（雅各布·萨尔瓦提 Jakob Salvati 饰）天生矮小瘦弱，为此没少受同龄人欺负，还被取绰号为“小男孩”（little boy）。他最好的朋友兼搭档，就是自己高大魁梧的父亲詹姆斯（迈克尔·拉帕波特 Michael Rapaport 饰）。在父亲的教导陪伴下，Pepper渡过了一段美好的时光。直到父亲应召入伍，投入到第二次世界大战的战场中去。就在Pepper期待父亲回家时，噩耗传来，他的父亲在菲律宾被日军虏为战俘，生死未卜。而此同时，Pepper和他哥哥London（大卫·亨瑞 David Henrie 饰）将战争仇恨发泄在镇上的一个日本人桥本身上，为此兄弟俩都接受了相应的惩罚。神父为了教育Pepper，将一个“古老的清单”交给他，只要他把清单上的任务都完成，他就能拥有可以移动大山的信念和力量，从而就能把他的父亲从二战战场中带回来。这个清单的其中一项，就是和日本人桥本成为朋友……

The Deserted Archipelago was my first independently directed and produced film. The film won the Grand Prix at the Nyon International Film Festival and garnered considerable attention both overseas and in Japan. The film follows an extremely simple story of a plain boy who matures into manhood while constantly manipulated by nuns. But woven into this narrative are my own experiences and the history of postwar Japan as well as a series of fantasies. The result is a multifaceted and multilayered objet, the birth of a newly sur-realistic filmmaking. On August 15th, the day the war ended, I was in the third year of primary school. That day, when the reality that I had known turned completely upside down, I was saddled with the trauma of no longer being able to believe in anything. Searching here and there for some kind of spiritual salvation, I finally found the existentialism of Albert Camus. From there, I was able to build up my own kind of existentialism and this film is best understood as based in that “Kanai Katsu Existentialism.” The film was praised by European film scholars Max Tessier and Tony Rayns and was screened as part of “Eiga: 25 Years of Japanese Film,” a special program at the 1984 Edinburgh International Film Festival.