Directed by Masashi Yamamoto • Drama • With Kumiko Ota, Tomorow Taguchi • 1987 • 119 minutes
On a drunken walk home, bohemian drug-dealer Kumi (Kumiko Ota) discovers an abandoned building on the outskirts of Tokyo. Attracted by the vast and untapped space rampant with luxuriant vegetation, she promptly sells all of her belongings and retreats from the world. She carves an island out of the concrete squat and wiles her days away growing cabbage and expressing herself in any way she pleases.
Following his gonzo debut Saint Terrorism (1980) and the memorable Carnival in the Night (1981), Masashi Yamamoto offers his defining punk statement. Winner of a Special Mention at the 1987 Locarno International Film Festival, Robinson's Garden is a rare, radical vision of a marginal, multicultural Tokyo. Lensed by Tom DiCillo (Living In Oblivion, Johnny Suede), it shares much in common with the No Wave films the cinematographer pioneered alongside Jim Jarmusch (Stranger Than Paradise). An unsung, anticapitalist masterwork.
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