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Synopsis

At once wry travelogue and heartbreaking tale of love lost, The Japanese Sandman is a visual interpretation of a letter William S. Burroughs wrote in 1953 to Allen Ginsberg (from the collection The Yage Letters). Told through Burroughs' incisive voice, cocaine snorting in Panama and post-prom handjobs in 1931 St. Louis becomes a meditation on loss, memory and the human condition.

Actor/performance artist John Fleck leads a stand-out cast through Burroughs' recounting of scoring opiates, whores and boys in Panama and, in the letter's "P.S.," a love affair with farm boy Billy Brandshinkel in the Ozark's of his youth. Imperial Teen's Roddy Bottum provides the lively and compelling score.