LawrenceA Posted February 24, 2017 Share Posted February 24, 2017 Acclaimed Japanese filmmaker Seijun Suzuki passed away on February 13th at age 93. He directed several colorful, boundary-pushing crime dramas in the 1960's that have been cited as influences on filmmakers as diverse as Jim Jarmusch, Wong Kar-wai and Quentin Tarantino. Among his best known films are Tokyo Drifter (1966), Branded to Kill (1967), Youth of the Beast and Kanto Wanderer (both 1963), Gate of Flesh (1964), Story of a Prostitute and Tattooed Life (both 1965) and Fighting Elegy (1966). Suzuki's career was cut short when in 1968 he sued the film studio Nikkatsu to which he was contracted when they stopped paying his salary and declared his films "incomprehensible". Shochiku later produced his next film in 1977 but it failed at the box office and he never recovered commercially. It wasn't until the late 1980's that his films came in for critical reassessment in the west, and Criterion released many of them on DVD. Since then he had come to be regarded as one of the most singular filmmakers of 60's Japanese cinema. Gate Of Flesh Tokyo Drifter Branded to Kill 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hamradio Posted February 25, 2017 Share Posted February 25, 2017 Acclaimed Japanese filmmaker Seijun Suzuki passed away on February 13th at age 93. Suzuki's career was cut short when in 1968 he sued the film studio Nikkatsu to which he was contracted when they stopped paying his salary and declared his films "incomprehensible". Shochiku later produced his next film in 1977 but it failed at the box office and he never recovered commercially. It wasn't until the late 1980's that his films came in for critical reassessment in the west, and Criterion released many of them on DVD. Since then he had come to be regarded as one of the most singular filmmakers of 60's Japanese cinema. He was a trendsetter, Hollywood will later make films incomprehensible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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