The Films of Seijun Suzuki

May 7–June 30, 2016

In films ranging from B-movie potboilers to beguiling metaphysical mysteries, Seijun Suzuki's audaciously experimental approach has gained him a cult following both in Japan and abroad.

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  • Pistol Opera

  • Branded to Kill

  • Zigeunerweisen

  • Kagero-za

  • Smashing the O-Line

  • Upcoming
    Films
  • Past
    Films
  • Past
    Events

Past Films

  • Smashing the 0-Line

    Seijun Suzuki
    Japan, 1960

    Imported Print!

    Saturday, May 7 8:40 PM

    With its jazzy musical score and sordid milieu of drug smuggling and human trafficking, this crime thriller features an ambitious and amoral reporter going up against a ruthless female gang boss.

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  • Youth of the Beast

    Seijun Suzuki
    Japan, 1963

    Imported Print!

    Sunday, May 8 8 PM

    Jo Shishido plays a disgraced ex-cop who pits two yakuza gangs against each other to avenge the death of a fellow officer.

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  • Kanto Wanderer

    Seijun Suzuki
    Japan, 1963

    Imported Print!

    Wednesday, May 11 7 PM

    Introduction & Booksigning by Tom Vick
    A fearsome yakuza bodyguard (Akira Kobayashi) is torn between defending his boss against a rival gang leader and his obsession with Tatsuko, a femme fatale who reappears from his past.

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  • Tokyo Drifter

    Seijun Suzuki
    Japan, 1966

    Digital Restoration!

    Thursday, May 12 7:30 PM

    Introduction by Tom Vick (May 12 screening only)
    Tasked with making a vehicle for actor/singer Tetsuya Watari, Suzuki concocted this crazy yarn about a reformed yakuza on the run from his former comrades. “One of the most brilliant genre movies ever made” (Tony Rayns).

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  • Zigeunerweisen

    Seijun Suzuki
    Japan, 1980

    Imported Print!

    Thursday, May 19 7 PM

    Named the best film of the 1980s in a poll of Japanese film critics, Suzuki’s metaphysical ghost story involves love triangles, doppelgangers, and a blurred line between the worlds of the living and the dead.

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  • Story of a Prostitute

    Seijun Suzuki
    Japan, 1965

    BAMPFA Student Committee Pick!

    Saturday, May 21 6:30 PM

    A comfort woman sent to the frontlines of Manchuria during the Sino-Japanese War fights back in Suzuki’s scathing portrayal of Japanese militarism.

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  • Branded to Kill

    Seijun Suzuki
    Japan, 1967
    Friday, May 27 8:45

    Suzuki’s anarchic send-up of B-movie clichés stars Jo Shishido as an assassin who winds up a target. Cited as an inspiration by filmmakers such as Quentin Tarantino, Jim Jarmusch, and John Woo.

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  • Gate of Flesh

    Seijun Suzuki
    1964
    Saturday, May 28 8:30 PM

    A gang of tough prostitutes try to survive in the ruins of postwar Tokyo, but a lusty ex-soldier (Jo Shishido) soon upsets their fragile camaraderie. Part social-realist drama, part sadomasochistic trash opera.

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  • Tokyo Drifter

    Seijun Suzuki
    Japan, 1966

    Digital Restoration!

    Friday, June 10 9 PM

    Introduction by Tom Vick (May 12 screening only)
    Tasked with making a vehicle for actor/singer Tetsuya Watari, Suzuki concocted this crazy yarn about a reformed yakuza on the run from his former comrades. “One of the most brilliant genre movies ever made” (Tony Rayns).

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  • Kagero-za

    Seijun Suzuki
    Japan, 1981

    Imported Print!

    Thursday, June 16 7 PM

    Suzuki’s hallucinatory Taisho-era drama blends reality, fantasy, and theater in a tale of a possible love suicide. “May well be Suzuki’s finest achievement outside the constraints of genre filmmaking” (Tony Rayns).

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  • Yumeji

    Seijun Suzuki
    Japan, 1991

    Imported Print!

    Saturday, June 18 8:30 PM

    Suzuki’s final film in his Taisho Trilogy spins a fantastical tale from the life of a historical figure, the bohemian artist Takehisa Yumeji (1884–1934).

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  • Pistol Opera

    Seijun Suzuki
    Japan, 2001

    Imported Print!

    Saturday, June 25 8:15 PM

    An assassin battles her way to the top of her guild in Suzuki’s very loose sequel to Branded to Kill, updated with cartoonish CGI effects and infused with the metaphysical concerns of the Taisho Trilogy.

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  • Princess Raccoon

    Seijun Suzuki
    Japan, 2005
    Thursday, June 30 7 PM

    Chinese superstar Zhang Ziyi and Japanese slacker king Joe Odagiri star in Suzuki’s bizarre fable involving an exiled prince, shape-shifting raccoons, and a princess. “Energetic, inventive and ever-so-slightly insane” (The Guardian).

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