Throughout his career, Michio Okabe has accustomed avant-garde cinema fans with themes of Rebellion, free love, surrealism with psychedelic visuals rooted in the post-war timeline. Almost every of his films is like a abstract experimentation encapsulating 60s'/70s' Japan. I had recently watched Sidney Peterson, Kan Mukai, Genjiro Arato, Kô Nakahira and Donald Richie's films and remembered Okabe's works, checked the titles and it was sad to see zero reviews plugged in. This is the reason i wanted to share my thoughts on Okabe's Crazy Love (1968). The film is reminiscent of his first short film The Doctrine of Creation (1967) and an homage to the 60s psychedelia, counter-culture lifestyle, most notably to Jack Smith's Normal Love (1963) and also the Kuchar brothers. With the rise of hippie culture and youth revolution in post-war Japan, Okabe explores the community, their psyche, the general public and the dreams of their future. It opens inside a Cinema hall, as the curtains start to open and the lights go down. Then a picture of Paul McCartney, followed by the rest of the band members and the title pops which is clearly influenced by Wes Wilson & Peter Max, maybe from album art of the Zombies's Odyssey and Oracle (1968). It is almost shot in black and white but splits the mood with psychedelic colour sequences in some places. The atmosphere of the film is mad, there is always some weird things happening which cannot be put into words. I wonder how Okabe shot the scenes in public spaces including the piggy back sequence. I will recommend this only for the fans of avant-garde cinema for both aesthetic and intellectual pleasure which is guaranteed in this film. Japanese Underground Version of Normal Love (1963)
