Event

CARNIVAL IN THE NIGHT

Dir. Masashi Yamamoto, 1981
Japan. 109 min
In Japanese with English subtitles.

A long, dark journey into nihilism, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. Filmed a year before BURST CITY, CARNIVAL IN THE NIGHT leans closer to anarchic punk than dystopian futurism, but its urban grime and verité-style shooting (the film is often mislabeled as a documentary) make it feel like a precursor to cyberpunk and cousin to New Yorks No Wave scene. Opening with a surreal take on Japans then-economic boom, the camera languidly moves through the sunny, colorful Shinjuku shopping district to the shrill sound of densely layered advertisements. It then drops literally underground into black and white at a noisy punk club, where singer Kumi finishes a set. She drops off (more like rids herself) of her young son, free now to spend the endless night wandering city streets with deranged druggie friend Papou. What they want isnt clear; what they seek is annihilation by any means meeting up with a bomb-makng friend, cruising male hustlers in the park, borrowing a gun with no intention of returning it. With nothing to fight for or against in an authoritarian society that wont even deign to oppress them (theres nary an officer to even try and stop their exploits), death seems like the only option.