Seijun Suzuki

Directing

Seijun Suzuki

Born 1923-05-24 · Nihonbashi, Tokyo, Japan

Seijun Suzuki born Seitaro Suzuki (24 May 1923 – 13 February 2017) was a Japanese filmmaker, actor, and screenwriter. His films are renowned by film enthusiasts worldwide for their jarring visual style, irreverent humour, nihilistic cool and entertainment-over-logic sensibility. He made 40 predominately B-movies for the Nikkatsu Company 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 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. As an independent filmmaker, he won critical acclaim and a Japanese Academy Award for his Taishō Trilogy, Zigeunerweisen (1980), Kagero-za (1981) and Yumeji (1991). His films remained widely unknown outside of Japan until a series of theatrical retrospectives beginning in the mid 1980s, home video releases of key films such as Branded to Kill and Tokyo Drifter in the late 1990s and tributes by such acclaimed filmmakers as Jim Jarmusch, Takeshi Kitano, Wong Kar-wai and Quentin Tarantino signaled his international discovery. Suzuki has continued making films, albeit sporadically. In Japan, he is more commonly recognized as an actor for his numerous roles in Japanese films and television. He passed away on February 13th, 2017. Description above from the Wikipedia article Seijun Suzuki, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Acting credits

Sure Death 6 poster
NR

When an artist dies, the official cause of death is judged to be a stroke, but his daughter suspects foul play. She recruits the services of an assassin, who by chance encounters an old friend...

Sure Death 6

1996

No artwork available
9.0

Three cinephile university students have a go at making their own Super-8 film.

I Can't Wait Until It's Dark!

1975

Double Bed poster
5.1

Kato is a small time TV producer. He has a wife Masako, and a young son Taro. Kato also has a friend Yamazaki who he knew since college. Yamazaki has a girl friend Riko who lives with her younger sister Yuko who's an actress. Yamazaki is a lyric writer/womanizer and he starts to have an affair with Masako, but he's still going out with Riko.

Double Bed

1983

SOAR: I Wish You Were Here poster
NR

A tragic love story set in a mountain village in the Showa era, waiting for a fiancé who died in the war, but it is more than that. It breaks through the existing concept of a film with a beginning, middle, and end, and like Fellini or Godard... Hara Masato's cosmic film philosophy on the theme of "human history and media" unfolds like a symphony.

SOAR: I Wish You Were Here

2015

Sleepless Town poster
7.4

Kenichi is a half-Japanese, half-Chinese man of the underworld. You can sell him anything except children's organs. His domain is in Kabukicho, a gangland controlled by various Shanghai gangs intent on taking control. His former partner-in-crime, Fu-Chun, is rumored to have returned to Kabukicho, having fled years earlier after killing the number two of gangland boss, Yuan. Yuan wants to get even and attempts to do so by using Kenichi.

Sleepless Town

1998

Yurika-chan poster
NR

An exciting 'psychic movie' starring Kanako Enomoto, adapted from the manga series by Yukio Tamai. Police detectives searching for clues related to a serial murder case seek out help from high schooler Yurika, who possesses latent split personality psychic abilities. The mystery deepens once Yurika is brought face-to-face with the crime scenes.

Yurika-chan

1997

Ki no ue no sogyo poster
8.0

A story about the friendship of the sons of two political rivals.

Ki no ue no sogyo

1997

Milocrorze: A Love Story poster
6.4

Following a scene where a young boy falls in love with the title character, only to have his heart broken by her, the film introduces us to three young men who are all in Milocrorze thrall, either literally or figuratively.

Milocrorze: A Love Story

2011

Cold Fever poster
6.4

A Japanese businessman travels to Iceland and has a series of misadventures while venturing to a remote area to perform a traditional burial ritual where his parents died several years back.

Cold Fever

1995

Embalming poster
4.7

Miyako, a young female embalmer, is called to restore the body of a recent suicide. While performing her duties, she pricks herself on a needle buried deep within the boy’s flesh. When the head is stolen during the night, Miyako begins a desperate search to recover it and finish her work, encountering organ harvesting, religious cults, and dark secrets from her own past along the way.

Embalming

1999

Shiro and Marilyn poster
7.0

Based on a true story. Shiro, a dog who lives in an inn on Akajima in Okinawa, swims to the opposite shore on Zamami to see his love, a dog named Marilyn. Shiro is portrayed by the real-life Shiro.

Shiro and Marilyn

1988

Blessing Bell poster
6.9

Existential study on a misplaced workers and ex-prisoner who moves through the city and his influence on other characters' lives.

Blessing Bell

2002

No artwork available
NR

A short documentary primarily focused on Nikkatsu's Roman Porno series.

The Erotic Empire

2002

Twist & Shoot: Mister Suzuki poster
NR

Seijun Suzuki became a cinema legend in the 1960s with a handful of pop-art films. So how can you make a portrait of this iconoclastic director without also adopting a 'style to kill' documentary convention, as well as testimonies from a variety of leading figures in contemporary Japanese and international filmmakers.

Twist & Shoot: Mister Suzuki

2026

The Last Day poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

The Last Day

2000

The Rain Women poster
6.5

Rain in Tokyo area. Two girls holed up in their tiny apartment. They go out, steal cabbages, hit a supermarket and kill a cow. The sun comes out and changes everything.

The Rain Women

1990

No artwork available
NR

Recently appointed dean at a film school, Kimuro Hajime develops a special concern for one of his students, Daisuke. The brash, headstrong young man is fixated on with the Second World War. He feels a sense of frustration at the irrational sacrifice of young people's lives during the war six decades earlier. Daisuke finds that he can vent his frustrations to Kimuro, who experienced the war firsthand. Kimuro's wife, Emiko, is also troubled by memories of the war. She lost a loved one in the war and has never gotten over it. And Kimuro himself also has something from the past that he has yet to face. He believes that the burden of his unresolved past will eventually be the death of him. When Daisuke's neurosis causes him to quit school, life changes for all three of them.

Dreaming Awake

2008

Disciples of Hippocrates poster
6.8

The story revolves around Ogino, who is in the last year of his medical studies. Between lectures, exams, on field training, his commitment as a pro-reformist militant and his girlfriend, Ogino is starting to wonder if he's really cut out to be a doctor.

Disciples of Hippocrates

1980

The Wings of Hakenkreuz poster
NR

When a man who as a student wanted to burn down his school meets a man years later, his new friend falls in love with the former female class-mate who herself is in love with the would-be arsonist.

The Wings of Hakenkreuz

2004

The Story of PuPu poster
5.0

Fu and Suzu are two hedonist girls who decide to take to the road. They set off on a journey to visit the tomb of a small pig by name Pupu. On the way, they meet Suzu's ex-lover, a gay couple, and a golf player; always getting in trouble. But whenever trouble comes, 'Trunk Man' the hero appears to save them.

The Story of PuPu

1998

Virgin Road poster
NR

Based on the comic book by Tatsuo Kanai

Virgin Road

1989

MOMENT poster
10.0

Pocky, an upbeat high-schooler, is told she will die in three days by a psychic whose predictions always come true. Along the way, she talks about boyfriends with her two friends, meets a strange boy with heart disease, and regularly bumps into a serial bomber.

MOMENT

1981

Discontinuous Bombing Incident poster
NR

What is the clue that connects the police dormitory bombing case & Keihin canal murder case with the corporate bombing case 17 years ago? Detective Tamori chases a mystery!

Discontinuous Bombing Incident

1991

No artwork available
6.0

Made for in 2005, this video interview features director Seijun Suzuki and production designer Takeo Kimura. These longtime collaborators discuss the making of GATE OF FLESH.

From the Ruins: Making 'Gate of Flesh'

2005

Behind the camera

Lupin the Third: The Legend of the Gold of Babylon poster
6.1

Lupin squares off with two criminal families and Inspector Zenigata's new female patrol to track down a hoard of biblical-era treasure.

Lupin the Third: The Legend of the Gold of Babylon

1985

Tokyo Drifter poster
7.1

After yakuza boss Kurata dissolves his own criminal empire, a rival kingpin offers a position to Kurata's top operative, Tetsuya "Phoenix Tetsu" Hondo. When the fiercely loyal Tetsu declines, Otsuka taps unstoppable Tatsuzo the "Viper", a ruthless gun-for-hire, to assassinate him. As the Viper trails his target through the countryside, the agile Phoenix Tetsu grows concerned that one of his former associates has betrayed him.

Tokyo Drifter

1966

Tattooed Life poster
7.2

After his own gang sets him up to kill a rival mobster, a hit man is forced to flee with his younger brother.

Tattooed Life

1965

Gate of Flesh poster
6.6

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 into their midst, lusts and loyalties clash, with tragic results. With Gate of Flesh, visionary director Seijun Suzuki delivers a whirlwind of social critique and pulp drama, shot through with brilliant colors and raw emotions.

Gate of Flesh

1964

Kagero-za poster
6.6

A 1920s playwright meets a beautiful woman who may be the ghost of his patron's deceased wife.

Kagero-za

1981

Branded to Kill poster
7.2

After botching his latest assignment, a third-ranked Japanese hit man becomes the target of another assassin.

Branded to Kill

1967

Branded to Kill poster
7.2

After botching his latest assignment, a third-ranked Japanese hit man becomes the target of another assassin.

Branded to Kill

1967

Story of a Prostitute poster
6.7

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 of a Prostitute is a tragic love story as well as a rule-bending take on a popular Taijiro Tamura novel, challenging military and fraternal codes of honor, as seen through Harumi's eyes.

Story of a Prostitute

1965

Zigeunerweisen poster
6.5

A surreal period film following a university professor and his eerie nomad friend as they go through loose romantic triangles and face death in peculiar ways.

Zigeunerweisen

1980

Smashing the 0-Line poster
6.3

Katiri is a reporter so ambitiously amoral that he’ll sell out anyone—including his partner and the drug dealer he’s sleeping with—to get a scoop. But what happens when an even more ruthless female gang boss kidnaps his sister?

Smashing the 0-Line

1960

Youth of the Beast poster
7.0

When a mysterious stranger muscles into two rival yakuza gangs, Tokyo's underworld explodes with violence.

Youth of the Beast

1963

Fighting Elegy poster
7.0

Kiroku boards with a Roman Catholic family and falls for the daughter Michiko. He ignores his feelings, joins a gang, gets in fights and, eventually, becomes involved with the radical Kita Ikki group.

Fighting Elegy

1966

Yumeji poster
6.4

Following the life of Japanese artist and poet Yumeji Takehisa through the imagining of an encounter with a beautiful widow with a dark past.

Yumeji

1991

Blood-Red Water in the Channel poster
10.0

Nikkatsu finally responds to Suzuki's growing discontentment by giving him a bigger budget and a better script. This episodic collection of "real coast guard action stories" was the perfect vehicle for Koji Wada. Whatever negative press he had received for Tokyo Knights was quickly forgotten. He became the new "teen star." And Suzuki: "the director to watch."

Blood-Red Water in the Channel

1961

Tokyo Knights poster
7.0

A college student takes over the family business in the field of organised crime.

Tokyo Knights

1961

Capone Cries a Lot poster
6.0

Umiemon is a naniwa-bushi singer who travels with his wife to the United States in hopes of achieving fame and fortune.

Capone Cries a Lot

1985

No artwork available
4.0

A semi-autobiographical film about a young man from Tokyo who moves to Hirosaki in the early Shōwa era. A straight-to-video production made for the Hirosaki Senior High School Alumni Association that also incorporates footage from contemporary Hirosaki, and features cameos by regular Suzuki performers like Tamagawa Isao and Nogawa Yumiko.

A Tale of Youth at Hirosaki High School

1992

No artwork available
4.0

A semi-autobiographical film about a young man from Tokyo who moves to Hirosaki in the early Shōwa era. A straight-to-video production made for the Hirosaki Senior High School Alumni Association that also incorporates footage from contemporary Hirosaki, and features cameos by regular Suzuki performers like Tamagawa Isao and Nogawa Yumiko.

A Tale of Youth at Hirosaki High School

1992

Take Aim at the Police Van poster
6.2

A sniper kills two prisoners in a police van, and the driver sets out to find the killer.

Take Aim at the Police Van

1960

The Guys Who Put Money on Me poster
7.5

An unofficial sequel to Million Dollar Match (1961) which also starred Koji Wada as a young energetic boxer. This story deals more with betting action surrounding a boxing match, concentrating mostly on the high-powered Yakuza gambling dens.

The Guys Who Put Money on Me

1962

Carmen from Kawachi poster
6.2

Like a girl runaway, Tsuyu moves to Osaka to work as a bar hostess. She meets the owner of a model school, Yoko, and seriously thinks about becoming a fashion model. Yoko tells her that she can move in to Yoko’s house to take lessons, while making a living at the same time.

Carmen from Kawachi

1966

Young Breasts poster
7.0

A delinquent young man (Kobayashi Akira) from a wealthy family decides to get in on a blackmailing scheme targeting his young stepmother (Watanabe Misako). However, he doesn't realize that his fellow blackmailers have their eyes on his girlfriend next.

Young Breasts

1958

Everything Goes Wrong poster
6.7

Everything goes wrong when Jiro tries to break up his mother's relationship with a business man. The young rebel Jiro has to deal with an environment of crime and prostitution, and the impact of its choices on personal relationships: one with his mother, one with her business man lover and one with the girl in love with him.

Everything Goes Wrong

1960

Harbour Toast: Victory Is in Our Grasp poster
10.0

A sailor tries to help his younger brother, a horse-racing jockey, escape from the yakuza after double crossing them in a fixing scam. Seijun Suzuki's directorial debut.

Harbour Toast: Victory Is in Our Grasp

1956