Hanasareru Gang (1984)

If the French nouvelle vague is an implicit reference point, or at least shares a certain sensibility with the films in this lineup-many of which feel like uninhibited, no-holds-barred experiments very loosely inspired by Truffaut, Rivette or Godard-then Hanasareru Gang is the only open homage to the French filmmakers. Genre elements such as gangsters, a suitcase full of money, and a girl who joins them for their misadventures build a kaleidoscopic game of filmic conventions. Always self-aware and willing to slip back and forth between storytelling and self-reflexivity with a light touch, Hanasareru Gang is easily recognizable as a complex yet passionately energetic variation of Suwa's more austere later films. One of the directors most explicitly influenced by French cinema, Suwa is best known outside of Japan for his H Story (2001), a film that starred Beatrice Dalle and was a remake of sorts of-and meta-filmic reflection on-Alain Resnais' Hiroshima Mon Amour.