Happiness Avenue / 1986

When Otomo Katsuhiro saw his manga Good Weather credited as the “original novel” he burst out laughing. There’s not an iota of his book anywhere in the film. Made in the same year as Sono Sion’s A Man’s Flower Road, Hirano Katsuyuki’s Happiness Avenue (where Sono plays a role) is madder and more abandoned, in both filmmaking and content. Lovelorn Masahiro goes on an odyssey to find fulfilment of his heart’s desire, and the sea he traverses are Tokyo’s open sewages.