Pale Flower (Shinoda, 1964): BFI Southbank, NFT1, 6.20pm
This 35mm presentation is part of the Japan season at BFI Southbank. Full details here.
Chicago Reader review:
“What was so wrong about killing one of these stupid animals?” ponders Ryo Ikebe in voice-over as director Masahiro Shinoda pans across a crowded city street in black-and-white ‘Scope, setting the malignant tone of this fine Japanese noir (1962). Ikebe plays a yakuza assassin just released from a prison term for killing a member of a rival gang; he quickly becomes enthralled with a gamine (Mariko Kaga) he meets in a men’s gaming parlor, but a third gang has forced a realignment in his absence, and before long he’s called into service again. Among Shinoda’s marvelous set pieces are a nightmare sequence that makes creepy use of two-dimensional space, and a knife attack in a bowling alley set to a string instrumental of “It’s Now or Never.”
JR Jones
Here (and above) is the trailer.
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