Robinson’s Garden (1987)

"My cabbages!"

I suspect Yamamoto Masashi’s 1987 film “Robinson’s Garden” is a polarizing film. Two hours of a counter culture woman creating a home out of an abandoned industrial site may either strike a viewer as profound or a colossal waste of time. I didn’t consider it a waste of time but also failed to see its profundity.

Kumi and her friend Maki make a meager living as small time drug dealers and live in a communal type dwelling with an international crowd of underachievers. One night while stumbling home drunk, Kumi climbs over a wall and enters a thick forest, unusual for Tokyo. There in the midst is an empty factory and surrounding buildings. The next day Kumi sells or gives away nearly everything she owns and moves in. She paints murals on the walls and plants small trees. After that she begins the arduous task of digging up overgrown weeds in order to plant a cabbage patch. She furnishes and decorates her home with castoffs she finds in alleyways. All does not go well when she invites her friends over and it ends in a brawl.

Robinson’s Garden was more about the feelings that it evoked than any plot. Conversations were sparse and usually inane and repetitious like a record skipping in place. Kumi created her own reality or at least tried to, the opposite life of the rigid salaryman or cooped up housewife. In a feverish moment she pedaled her bike through a group of identically dressed salarymen to drive home the point. The isolated, verdant island hidden somewhere in Tokyo had a mythical feel about it, especially when coupled with a mysterious tree at the center of strange events.

The industrial site transformed into a rustic home led people to have hallucinations. An odd mandala painted by a stranger could have been a curse or a blessing. Kumi’s physical and mental health deteriorated as time went on, was she a victim of nature or lead paint or having only cabbages to eat? Kumi wasn’t a great gardener and alternated between working feverishly and sleeping for long periods of time.

Robinson’s Garden had little plot and could have used some judicious editing from my perspective. For a time, Kumi’s off grid existence bordered on paradise as she spent her days living in the moment. Capitalism and consumerism were far away over the wall. Either Nature or her own ebbing sanity began clawing back the “improvements” she’d made, showing the impermanence of humanity in the face of whatever green goddess ruled in her hidden world. This film was interesting but didn’t convey very clearly the existential questions it seemed to dance around.

25 June 2025

Trigger warnings: Partial nudity and sexual encounters

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