Descripción momentánea en inglés: Shot in the Shinjuku area of Tokyo in 1968 when the underground renaissance was blossoming and the excitement of revolution and liberation was in the air, Crazy Love is a portrait of the period. Spilling out of the established norm, Crazy Love is a collage of underground pursuits such as Zero Jigen’s (Zero Dimension) happening on the street, Genpei Akasegawa’s fake bill, a butoh dancer’s intervention in an ordinary scene, a march by futen (hippies), sexual expressions, and parodies of commercial film and advertisements. The film’s pulse is the music of the masses such as rock, Japanese and foreign popular music, and film scores. The performers are “crazy” stars of the underground scene that Okabe revered. The era’s darlings such as Rikuro Miyai, Gulliver, Tamio Suenaga, Yasunao Tone, Kenji Kanesaka, and Jushin Sato perform as eccentric characters, and other members of the underground scene appear as themselves. Okabe himself also joyfully acts out the roles such as Django and James Bond. Everything seems like a hoax, while at the same time delivering a portrait of the moment. This twisted realism is the campy art of Michio Okabe. An unusually voluminous work for an underground film made in 16mm and running 97 minutes, this work is packed with Okabe’s original camp aesthetic with inclusion of the deviation from common sense, the abandonment of the narrative, the confusion of fiction and documentary, the active incorporation of outtakes, and the denial of professionalism. Just as Okabe described this work as “a kind of youth film,” the youthful free spirit that overflows from this piece continues to appeal.
