Nagisa Ôshima returned, fourteen years after his previous feature, Max mon amour, with a final film. Like the scandalous In the Realm of the Senses (NYFF14), Gohatto deals with the anti-authoritarian sway of sexuality, a nearly taboo topic in Japan at the time of its release. The setting is a 19th century samurai school, where an impossibly handsome new recruit (Ryûhei Matsuda) spreads trouble and desire through the ranks of enlisted men and officers alike (among them Beat Takeshi). Filmed in a stately, burnished style, Gohatto is a late-life statement from one of the genuine masters of the medium. An NYFF38 selection.