Hey folks, Harry here... If you have never seen a Seijun Suzuki film... if you have never seen BRANDED TO KILL... Then by all means get out there and buy or rent the DVD... It is a wonderful crime film... and when you watch it, you can just imagine a young John Woo and Tsui Hark in the theater watching it long long ago... Seijun's influences are unmistakable and the very few films of his I've had the opportunity to watch have continually surprised me in their originality. The news that he's making a new film is very exciting for me and it has a typical Suzuki title.... PISTOL OPERA OF MURDER!!! Heh.. (rubbing hands together) oh goody goody...
Hey Harry, my name is DAve and I run a web site deicated to the great Japanese director Seijun Suzuki called "45. Caliber Samurai". I've just gotten a scoop about the release of his newest movie in ten years, "Pistol Opera of Murder". This is the coolest news ever, because this movie is a sequal to Suzuki's 1967 classic "Branded to Kill". Here's the message...
I was just curious if you knew about Suzuki-sensei's latest film. It is entitled, I kid you not, "Koroshi no Rakuin: Pistol Opera" and stars a largely female cast! Sensei considers it a follow-up (if not a direct sequel) to his classic "Koroshi no Rakuin" ("Branded to Kill").
Here is the URL for the Japanese web page covering the film's press party.
Interesting thing is that this film is being jointly produced by Shochiku AND (can you believe it?) Nikkatsu! The film was actually shot at Nikkatsu Studios! The mind boggles!!!
My favorite part of the Suzuki interviews is where they asked him "Why a sequel to 'Branded to Kill'?" and Sensei replies, "...The sponsors thought that a story like 'Branded to Kill" would be nice..so, I just wanted to follow what they said.." (The audience broke out into laughter!) Suzuki still has his great sarcastic sense of humor, eh?
My Japanese is not as good as could be; so, I am not sure if this is a film already finished (Suzuki talks about wishing he hadn't had to rely on special visual effects so much) or if it is still in production. I don't see anything about a release date.
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I did some further research and found out that the film has a release date of Fall-2001 in Japan. What's really so surprising, is that Nikkatsu is the same studio that Suzuki was fired from after making "Branded to Kill", supposedly, because it was incomprehensiable. Suzuki later sued them and won his case, but ended up being blacklisted from the film industry for the next ten years because of it.
Either way, 2001 is turning out to be a great time for Seijun Suzuki fans. Here are some other links to Suzuki events happening overseas in celabration of the return of one of the coolest living filmmakers ever SEIJUN SUZUKI!
STYLE TO KILL - a 32 film retrospective of Suzuki's greatest works, all with new restored prints.
DEEP SEIJUN - a film retropective covering Suzuki's later indepentdent work for which he won the Japanese Acadamy Award for best picture and director in 1980 with Zigeunerweisen.
45. Caliber Samuri- a shameless plug for the only place to get all the lastest and greatest news on Seijun Suzuki.
Thanks Harry,
DAve
