“(4 Stars) Masterpiece . . . One of the year’s ten best” (Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader). Oshima’s first fiction film in fourteen years seems at first glance to be another taboo-breaker (as its title suggests) but, in its gorgeous design and cinematography, actually evokes the golden age of Japanese cinema. A tale of homosexual desire amongst samurai, Gohatto is set, spectacularly, in Kyoto in 1865 during the tumultuous last days of the Shogunate. Two new conscripts join the Shinsengumi militia, which is assigned to protect the shoguns from rebellion: Tashiro, a rough, handsome rural warrior, and Kano, a supernally delicate teenager with prominent forelock and rosebud lips. The latter, who elegantly performs an execution as a test of will, soon becomes the object of desire for several Shinsen members, including the macho Tashiro and Captain Hijikata, played by none other than Takeshi Kitano. A complex drama of lust, honour, and revenge culminates in a final battle between the two new recruits, one very much in love with the unattainable other, evocatively staged in a misty marsh in the style of Mizoguchi. A work of great formal beauty, the stylized, dreamy Gohatto “distills Oshima’s mastery into exquisite, mesmerizing classicism and graceful economy” (Gavin Smith, The Village Voice). “One of the ten best of the year” (J. Hoberman, The Village Voice).

Rated 14A. Mature Theme, Not Recommended For Children, Violence.