Seijun Suzuki’s deliriously inventive approach to filmmaking and his ability to contort genre expectations have influenced filmmakers from John Woo to Quentin Tarantino. We celebrate the life and career of this genuine iconoclast.
Directed by Seijun Suzuki • 1960 • Japan
At the beginning of Seijun Suzuki's taut and twisty whodunit, a prison truck is attacked and a convict inside murdered. The penitentiary guard on duty, Daijiro (Michitaro Mizushima), is accused of negligence and suspended, only to take it upon himself to ...
Directed by Seijun Suzuki • 1963 • Japan
When a mysterious stranger muscles into two rival yakuza gangs, Tokyo's underworld explodes with violence. YOUTH OF THE BEAST (Yaju no Seishun) was a breakthrough for director Seijun Suzuki, introducing the flamboyant colors, hallucinatory images, and str...
Directed by Seijun Suzuki • 1964 • Japan
In the shady black markets and bombed-out hovels of post-World War II Tokyo, a tough band of prostitutes eke out a dog-eat-dog existence, maintaining tenuous friendships and a semblance of order in a world of chaos. But when a renegade ex-soldier stumbles...
Directed by Seijun Suzuki • 1965 • Japan
Volunteering as a "comfort woman" on the Manchurian front, where she is expected to service hundreds of soldiers, Harumi is commandeered by the brutal Lieutenant Narita but falls for the sensitive Mikami, Narita's direct subordinate. Seijun Suzuki's Story...
Directed by Seijun Suzuki • 1966 • Japan
In this jazzy gangster film, reformed killer Tetsu's attempt to go straight is thwarted when his former cohorts call him back to Tokyo to help battle a rival gang. Director Seijun Suzuki's onslaught of stylized violence and trippy colors is equal parts Ru...
Directed by Seijun Suzuki • 1966 • Japan
High schooler Kiroku Nanbu yearns for the prim, Catholic Michiko, but her only desire is to reform Kiroku's sinful tendencies. Hormones raging, Kiroku channels his unsatisfied lust into the only outlet available: savage, crazed violence. FIGHTING ELEGY (K...
Directed by Seijun Suzuki • 1967 • Japan
When Japanese New Wave bad boy Seijun Suzuki delivered this brutal, hilarious, and visually inspired masterpiece to the executives at his studio, he was promptly fired. Branded to Kill tells the ecstatically bent story of a yakuza assassin with a fetish f...