It's crazy incomprehensible nonsense, but I'd never call it boring. It's a dreamlike anti-narrative about a boy who's travelling in search of some lyrics his mother used to sing. He doesn't find them. Instead, we see people carrying giant multi-coloured balls, various naked women and non-explicit sex scenes, people whose bodies are covered in writing, suicide, a pregnancy stone, a desert near the seaside, a 1930s brothel, a girl curled up in a gigantic matchbox and monks carrying a door along a roof.

This is by Terayama Shuuji, a Japanese avant-garde poet, artist, dramatist, writer, photographer and director who worked in radio drama, experimental television, underground theatre, countercultural essays, Japanese New Wave and "expanded" cinema. He sounds fascinating. Another of his films is called Emperor Tomato Ketchup and portrays an empire of children where adults were overthrown. (It also doesn't have a narrative or even really characters.)

Grass Labyrinth's hero is shown at different ages and in multiple eras and visual styles. Black-and-white? Pre-war 1930s Japan? Yup, all those and more. A scene's most bonkers elements will often be in the background. Will there be incest? You betcha. The nearest we get to narrative progression comes from a Greek chorus of loonies (topless women, ninja, monks with shaved heads, etc.) who are the only source of meaningful information.

"She's an awful woman who, ten years ago, shut away the servant her husband raped. She treats her like a nymphomaniac."

Our hero's mother cuts up a large fish while it's (initially) still alive. I realise that's just everyday cooking in Japan, but ew.

This was originally part of a French anthology film called Private Collections. Its other two segments were by Walerian Borowczyk (Polish) and Just Jaeckin (French). This was the longest segment and four years later got a standalone theatrical release in Japan. It's pretty wacky. Surreal, dreamlike and enigmatic. I've no idea what it's trying to say, if anything, but it kept my attention and its running time means it doesn't overstay its welcome. I'm not normally big on anti-narrative filmmaking, but this was interesting and I wouldn't mind watching other Terayama Shuuji films.