Black Lizard

Kurotokage

Japan

1968

86 Min

Color

2.35:1

Japanese, English

Currently 3.6/5 Stars.
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SCR Edogawa Rampo, Yukio Mishima, Masashige Narusawa

CAST Akihiro Miwa, Isao Kimura, Kikko Matsuoka, Junya Usami, Yusuke Kawazu, Kô Nishimura, Toshiko Kobayashi, Sonosuke Oda, Kinji Hattori, Koichi Sato, Jun Katō, Ryūji Funakoshi, Mitsuko Takara, Tetsurô Tamba, Yukio Mishima

SOUND Hirobumi Sato, Toshio Tanaka

Synopsis

Japanese sixties comedy featuring a cunning female jewel thief named Black Lizard who tries to kidnap Sanaye, a wealthy jeweler’s beautiful daughter as part of a plot to steal the jeweler’s expensive “Star of Egypt” diamond. To thwart the planned kidnapping, the jeweler hires Japan’s number one detective, the brilliant Akechi. This sets off a dual between Black Lizard and Akechi as each tries to outwit the other. In the process, the two adversaries develop a mutual respect and affection for each other. Despite Akechi’s efforts, Black Lizard and her crew are able to kidnap Sanaye and gain possession of the “Star of Egypt”. Black Lizard takes Sanaye to her secret lair on a remote island which is populated by an eerie collection of naked human dolls. There Black Lizard plans to preserve Sanaye’s beauty forever by turning her into one of her dolls. As Sanaye’s doom quickly approaches, it is up to Akechi to save the day. —IMDb

Director

Kinji Fukasaku

Known primarily in the West for directing such features as Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970) and the controversial Battle Royale (2000), maverick Japanese director Kinji Fukasaku established himself early on with a series of Toei Studio yakuza movies before gaining international recognition after taking over for Akira Kurosawa when the legendary director abandoned Tora! Tora! Tora!. Fukasaku was born in Mito, Japan, in 1930, and made his film debut with 1961’s High Noon for Gangsters.Taking a cue from Italian neorealism, Fukasaku continued to craft a unique style that would flourish throughout the 1960s. Later helming the visually explosive Black Lizard, it soon became apparent that Fukasaku was a director whose talents were limited by the suffocating restraints of the Japanese studio system. Exploring the dark underworld of crime and continually blurring the line between good and evil in his “Battle series,” (which began with 1973’s Battles Without Honor and Humanity) the director’s brutal… read more

Known primarily in the West for directing such features as Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970) and the controversial Battle Royale (2000), maverick Japanese director Kinji Fukasaku established himself early on with a series of Toei Studio yakuza movies before gaining international recognition after taking over for Akira Kurosawa when the legendary director abandoned Tora! Tora! Tora!. Fukasaku was born in Mito, Japan, in 1930, and made his film debut with 1961’s High Noon for Gangsters.Taking a cue from Italian neorealism, Fukasaku continued to craft a unique style that would flourish throughout the 1960s. Later helming the visually explosive Black Lizard, it soon became apparent that Fukasaku was a director whose talents were limited by the suffocating restraints of the Japanese studio system. Exploring the dark underworld of crime and continually blurring the line between good and evil in his “Battle series,” (which began with 1973’s Battles Without Honor and Humanity) the director’s brutal and abrasive films captured the life of crime as rarely seen by the general Japanese public. Though he would subsequently dabble in samurai cinema for a brief period, it was soon time to film the biggest-budgeted Japanese film to date, the international co-production Virus (1980). Headlined by an all-star cast of American and Japanese actors, the film told a grim tale of world destruction on an epic scale. The Fall Guy (1982), filmed shortly thereafter, proved the celluloid manifestation of Fukasaku’s frustrations with the restrictive studio system, and found the director the recipient of numerous awards.

Continuing to work steadily through the following decade and into the new millennium, Fukasaku released the most controversial film of his career in 2000. Once again exploring his frustrations with Japanese society, Battle Royale sparked a firestorm of controversy both in Japan and abroad with it’s striking and disturbing images of children locked in graphic mortal combat. Issued as a dire warning to the youth of Japan, Battle Royale ultimately proved a substantial hit at the box office and it wasn’t long before a sequel went into development.Soldiering on despite continually declining health, Fukasaku was admitted to a hospital in late December and died soon after on January 12, 2003. Despite the fact that the director himself would not be able to complete work on his final effort, son Kenta Fukasaku would complete the film for a 2003 release.

(From http://www.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll?p=avg&sql=2:90730~T1)

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