Tokyo Drifter's riot of colors deserves far better than the faded print from the PFA Collection which we have shown in the past. The excellent color print we present tonight is without subtitles; however, Suzuki's masterpiece among his yakuza genre films relies almost entirely on its wild visuals and very little on dialogue. A written English synopsis will be provided. "In Tokyo Drifter Suzuki pulls out all the stops. This highly stylized send-up of the yakuza genre, complete with garish colors, pulsating jazz score, Guys and Dolls sets, and a Western-style saloon brawl, is a delight to watch. A gangster with a tough-as-nails reputation tries to go straight, but neither circumstances nor his enemies allow him to. His girlfriend, a nightclub singer (natch), keeps trying to ensnare him, but other than saving her from lecherous yakuzas, he won't touch her. In a male-dominated world of treachery, losers and drifters, a woman's presence becomes an anomaly. Better if she were a horse. In Tokyo Drifter, Suzuki, with his eccentric knack for the absurd, has created a true work of Pop Art." (Luis H. Francia, Village Voice) "Suzuki's deadpan irony, occasionally relying on marvelously cinematic sight gags, explodes the genre's conventions and revels in a beautifully sensuous formal play to counterpoint the parody (the hero is always ready to burst out in song, such as the theme song provided by a current hit tune). Suzuki's films recall the best, corrosively anarchic work of Tashlin or Tex Avery and their celebration of cinema as aesthetic play. In this he not only preceded but outclassed Coppola's One From the Heart (1981)." (Paul Willemen, Edinburgh Film Festival '88)