Oshima’s final film explores his familiar theme of forbidden sexuality in a repressive institutional setting, but with a dreamlike poetic accent, amplified by Sakamoto’s pulsing staccato synths. Set in a 19th-century military academy during the waning of the samurai era, Gohatto centers on an androgynous young warrior who attracts the attention of recruits and instructors alike.
In Japanese with English subtitles