On directing > I make movies that make no sense | Seijun Suzuki, 1997

Seijun Suzuki, Los Angeles, 1997
~ during a retrospective on his work at the Nuart Theater

Seijun Suzuki (1923 – 2017), was a Japanese filmmaker, actor, and screenwriter. He made 40 predominately B-movies for the Nikkatsu Company ( Japan’s oldest production studio) between 1956 and 1967, working most prolifically in the yakuza genre. His increasingly surreal style began to draw the ire of the studio in 1963 and culminated in his ultimate * dismissal for what is now regarded as his magnum opus, Branded to Kill (1967), starring notable collaborator Joe Shishido. Suzuki successfully sued the studio for wrongful dismissal, but he was blacklisted for 10 years after that.

…

“Seijun Suzuki is a director who makes incomprehensible films. As such, Seijun Suzuki’s films are bad films, and to screen them publicly would be an embarrassment for Nikkatsu.

* Nikkatsu president Kyusaku Hori addressing his dismissal from the company.

Also:
Flick Review < Late Spring | Yasujirō Ozu, 1949
Film Stills |=| Memories | Mikio Naruse, 1955