Part of director Seijun Suzuki’s absurdist Taisho trilogy, this surreal tale follows 1920s painter Yumeji Takehisa (Kenji Sawada) who strays from his lover when he falls for the beautiful and newly widowed Tomoyo (Tomoko Mariya). Meanwhile, Tomoyo’s slain husband Wakiya (Yoshio Harada), returns from the dead to torment his murderer, the jealous Onimatsu (Kazuhiko Hasegawa) who hopes to put the ghost to rest for good. —Rotten Tomatoes
Seijun Suzuki (鈴木 清順, Suzuki Seijun?), born Seitaro Suzuki (鈴木 清太郎 Suzuki Seitarō) on May 24, 1923, is a Japanese filmmaker, actor, and screenwriter. His films are renowned by film enthusiasts worldwide for their jarring visual style, irreverent humour, nihilistic cool and entertainment-over-logic sensibility. He made 40 predominately B-movies for the Nikkatsu Company between 1956 and 1967, working most prolifically in the yakuza genre. His increasingly surreal style began to draw the ire of the studio in 1963 and culminated in his ultimate dismissal for what is now regarded his magnum opus, Branded to Kill (1967), starring notable collaborator Joe Shishido. Suzuki successfully sued the studio for wrongful dismissal but was blacklisted for 10 years. As an independent filmmaker he won critical acclaim and a Japanese Academy Award for his Taishō Trilogy, Zigeunerweisen (1980), Kagero-za (1981) and Yumeji (1991).
His films remained widely unknown outside of Japan until a series… read more
This is the film that Suzuki had been working towards with the first two movies in the Taisho Trilogy. For starters it's the perfect length, Suzuki packs so much into two hours and eight minutes, and it never drags. Second, there's more a plot here than the first two movies, and with that comes more emphasis on character. But the real star here is the beautiful abstract images that Suzuki created. There are some jaw-dropping set pieces and delicious colors to be found. This is one of those movies that I felt like I was living in and loved so much it's just incredibly difficult to talk about how much I love it.
