Joe Shishido plays a tough guy with a secret agenda. His violent behavior comes to the attention of a yakuza boss who immediately recruits him. Read More »
Tag Archives: Seijun Suzuki
Hana to dotô / The Flower and the Angry Waves (1964) Seijun Suzuki, Akira Kobayashi, Tamio Kawaji, Chieko Matsubara, Action, Drama
Working from a novel by Aoyama Koji he tells the story of Ogata Kikuji (Kobayashi Akira) – a former Yakuza member, now on the straight and narrow. Read More »
Koroshi no rakuin / Branded to Kill (1967) Seijun Suzuki, Jô Shishido, Kôji Nanbara, Isao Tamagawa, Action, Crime, Drama
The number-three-ranked hit-man, with a fetish for sniffing boiling rice, fumbles his latest job, which puts him into conflict with a mysterious woman Read More »
Operetta tanuki goten / Princess Raccoon (2005) Seijun Suzuki, Ziyi Zhang, Joe Odagiri, Hiroko Yakushimaru, Comedy, Fantasy, Musical
Amechiyo is being hunted by his father for being too beautiful and as he tries to escape he runs into Princess Raccoon, a raccoon in human form. Read More »
Kagerô-za / Heat-Haze Theatre (1981) Seijun Suzuki, Yûsaku Matsuda, Michiyo Ohkusu, Mariko Kaga, Fantasy, Romance, Thriller
Playwright Matsuzaki (Yusaku Matsuda) crosses paths with a beautiful woman on her way to the hospital who tells him a friend is dying. Frightened of a mysterious older woman who sells the fruit of the Chinese Lantern Plant – rumored to be distaff souls – she implores Matsuzaki to accompany her.
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Zigeunerweisen / Tsigoineruwaizen (1980) Seijun Suzuki, Yoshio Harada, Naoko Ôtani, Toshiya Fujita, Horror, Mystery
A surreal period film following an university professor and his eerie nomad friend as they go through loose romantic triangles and face death in peculiar ways.
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Underworld Beauty (1958) Seijun Suzuki, Michitarô Mizushima, Mari Shiraki, Shinsuke Ashida, Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
The moment he’s released from prison, the honorable gangster Miyamoto recovers the stolen diamonds he had stashed before getting pinched. When he returns to his haunt to make good by friend who took a bullet for him, he is diverted by the greedy boss Oyane and his insatiable taste for Miyamoto’s precious stones. Replete with film noir style, “Underworld Beauty” is one of Suzuki’s best nods to the American gangster genre.
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Shunpu den / Story of a Prostitute (1965) Seijun Suzuki, Tamio Kawachi, Yumiko Nogawa, Isao Tamagawa, Drama, War
In WW2 Manchuria, a prostitute grows to resent an abusive adjutant and falls in love with his aide.
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