Synopsis
In this free-jazz gangster film, reformed killer “Phoenix” Tetsu drifts around Japan, awaiting his own execution, until he’s called back to Tokyo to help battle a rival gang. Seijun Suzuki’s “barrage of aestheticised violence, visual gags, [and] mind-warping color effects” got him in more trouble with Nikkatsu studio heads, who had ordered him to “play it straight this time.” Instead he gave them equal parts Russ Meyer, Samuel Fuller, and Nagisa Oshima. Criterion presents the DVD premiere of Tokyo Drifter in a lush color transfer from the original, glorious Nikkatsu-scope master.
Cast
| Tetsuya Hondo | Tetsuya Watari |
| Chiharu | Chieko Matsubara |
| Kenji Aizawa | Hideaki Nitani |
| Tatsuzo | Tamio Kawachi |
| Keiichi | Tsuyoshi Yoshida |
| Kurata | Ryuji Kita |
Credits
| Director | Seijun Suzuki |
| Producer | Tetsuro Nakagawa |
| Screenplay | Yasunori Kawauchi |
| Cinematography | Shigeyoshi Mine |
| Editing | Shinya Inoue |
| Production Design | Takeo Kimura |
| Assistant director | Masami Kuzuu |
| Music | So Kaburagi |
Disc Features
- A rare interview with director Seijun Suzuki
From the Current
Tokyo Drifter
by Feb 22, 1999To experience a film by Japanese B-movie visionary Seijun Suzuki is to experience Japanese cinema in all its frenzied, voluptuous excess. Born in Tokyo in 1923, Seijun Suzuki is best known for a cycle of extraordinary yakuza (gangster) movies he shot during the ’60s, movies teaming with . . .
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