Directed by Seijun Suzuki
11 Episodes
Born one hundred years ago this month, Japanese New Wave renegade Seijun Suzuki combined a deliriously inventive approach to filmmaking and a fast-and-loose attitude toward genre expectations to make some of the most thrillingly stylish movies of all time, frequently transcending narrative logic and skyrocketing clear into the realm of total pop-art abstraction. From the anything-goes yakuza thrillers TOKYO DRIFTER and BRANDED TO KILL (a masterpiece so narratively fractured it resulted in his unceremonious firing from his longtime home studio of Nikkatsu) to the daring postwar dramas of human frailty GATE OF FLESH and STORY OF A PROSTITUTE to his acclaimed late-career swerve toward surreal period drama in the Taisho Trilogy (ZIGEUNERWEISEN, KAGERO-ZA, YUMEJI), Suzuki played chaos like jazz, cramming boundless visual ideas into his beautifully composed frames.
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01:09Episode 1Directed by Seijun Suzuki Teaser
Episode 1
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13:30Episode 2Grady Hendrix on Seijun Suzuki
Episode 2
This interview with critic and author Grady Hendrix was recorded in 2023.
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04:29Episode 3Suzuki on Suzuki
Episode 3
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1:11:26Episode 4Everything Goes Wrong
Episode 4
Directed by Seijun Suzuki • 1960 • Japan
Everything goes wrong when Jiro tries to break up his mother's relationship with a business man.
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1:19:04Episode 5Take Aim at the Police Van
Episode 5
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 ...
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1:31:47Episode 6Youth of the Beast
Episode 6
Directed by Seijun Suzuki • 1963 • Japan
Starring Joe Shishido, Misako Watanabe, Tamio KawajiWhen 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...
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1:30:41Episode 7Gate of Flesh
Episode 7
Directed by Seijun Suzuki • 1964 • Japan
Starring Joe Shishido, Yumiko Nogawa, Satoko KasaiIn 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 worl...
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1:36:22Episode 8Story of a Prostitute
Episode 8
Directed by Seijun Suzuki • 1965 • Japan
Starring Yumiko Nogawa, Isao Tamagawa, Tamio KawachiVolunteering 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 Mikam...
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1:22:49Episode 9Tokyo Drifter
Episode 9
Directed by Seijun Suzuki • 1966 • Japan
Starring Tetsuya Watari, Chieko Matsubara, Tamio KawajiIn 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 ...
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1:26:17Episode 10Fighting Elegy
Episode 10
Directed by Seijun Suzuki • 1966 • Japan
Starring Hideki Takahashi, Junko Asano, Yusuke KawazuHigh 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...
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1:31:59Episode 11Branded to Kill
Episode 11
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...