Robinson’s Garden

Newly remastered! Late one drunken night, drug-dealing slacker Kumi (Kumiko Ohta) stumbles upon a derelict warehouse in an abandoned industrial site on the outskirts of Tokyo overgrown with lush greenery. She returns to her newfound oasis with supplies and begins cultivating the land and painting the walls, inviting a cadre of hippies, artists, punkers and foreigners to escape from Japan’s bubble era cityscape. Over time, Kumi’s isolated attachment to her hidden garden begins to result in increasingly strange behavior, primarily witnessed by an equally strange child who always seems to be around. Directed by celebrated independent filmmaker Masashi Yamamoto (Wonderful Paradise) and shot on 16mm by Tom DiCillo (Stranger Than Paradise), Robinson’s Garden emphasizes mood, texture and atmosphere over plot and characters, resulting in a hypnotizing and beautifully otherworldly cinematic experience.

A new restoration from Kani Films

1987 / 119 min / 1.85:1 / Japanese 

Writing for Film Comment magazine, Amos Vogel praised the film, citing its “sumptuously poetic images” and “visual magic,” while recognizing Yamamoto’s original, unconventional approach to narrative structure.