is a Japanese film directed by

Shūji Terayama was a Japanese avant-garde poet, dramatist, writer, film director, and photographer. His works range from radio drama, experimental television, underground (''Angura'') theatre, countercultural essays, to Japanese New Wave and "expanded" cinema. ...

which was released in France in 1979 and in Japan in 1983.

Plot

A surreal excursion into a young man's subconscious as he searches for the words to a tune that his mother may have sung to him as a child. The dreamlike images culminate in a scene of a girl's naked body covered with calligraphic characters.

Cast

Hiroshi Mikami is a Japanese actor. He starred in the musical ''Hedwig and the Angry Inch (musical), Hedwig and the Angry Inch'' in 2004. Hiroshi Mikami grew up in the 1960s with a family that was closely related to the entertainment industry with his mother ...

as Akira (as a boy) * Takeshi Wakamatsu as Akira (as a man) * Keiko Niitaka as Mother *

Juzo Itami , born , was a Japanese actor, screenwriter and film director. He directed eleven films (one short and ten features), all of which he wrote himself. Early life Itami was born Yoshihiro Ikeuchi in Kyoto. The name Itami was passed on from his fath ...

as Principal / Priest / Old man * Miho Fukuya as Girl *

Masaharu Satō is a Japanese actor, voice actor and narrator currently working for Aoni Production. He was born in Ōta, Tokyo. Satō is best known for the roles of Buffaloman, Sunshine (''Kinnikuman''), Miyamoto Musashi (''Yaiba''), Adah ('' Mushiking: King o ...

Release

''Grass Labyrinth'' was originally one of the installments in a French movie package called ''Private Collections'', the other two sections being directed by

Walerian Borowczyk Walerian Borowczyk (21 October 1923 – 3 February 2006) was an internationally known Polish film director described by film critics as a 'genius who also happened to be a pornographer'. He directed 40 films between 1946 and 1988. Borowczyk sett ...

and

Just Jaeckin Just Jaeckin (8 August 1940 – 6 September 2022) was a French film director, photographer, and sculptor. Early life Jaeckin was born in Vichy, Allier, French State Vichy France (french: Régime de Vichy; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 19 ...

, both associated with avant-garde films with strong sexual content. ''Grass Labyrinth'' was the longest of the three and was later (1983) released as a separate film in Japan.

Awards and nominations

8th

Hochi Film Award The are film-specific prizes awarded by the ''Hochi Shimbun , previously known as , is a Japanese-language daily sports newspaper. In 2002, it had a circulation of a million copies a day. It is an affiliate newspaper of ''Yomiuri Shimbun''. ...

* Won: Best Actor -

References

External links

* * 1979 films French short films Films directed by Shūji Terayama 1970s Japanese-language films Toei Company films Japanese short films 1970s Japanese films {{1970s-Japan-film-stub