Seijun Suzuki: Chaos and Absurdism

Hello Readers. This entry will be about Japanese filmmaker, Seijun Suzuki. If you enjoy highly stylized crime films that feature exaggerated and absurdist humor, then you might want to dive into the work of this Japanese filmmaker. Suzuki is responsible for some of Japan's most outrageous crime movies of the 1960's as some of his most well known films came out during that era. Before his peak years as director, Suzuki starting working as an assistant director. In the mid 1950's when Suzuki began to direct films on his own, he directed films for the Nikkatsu production company. Most of the films he made for Nikkastsu were B movies, which were movies that usually had limited budgets and tight shooting schedules. These directors had to work at a rapid rate and usually had to accept every script that was sent to them. Suzuki established an impressive rapid pace, averaging almost over 3 films per year. In the early to mid 60's, there became a turning point for Suzuki with films such as The Bastard (1963), Youth of the Beast (1963), and Tattooed Life (1965). This is around the time where he began a collaboration with set decorator, Takeo Kimura. This collaboration lead to an increase visual experimentation that Suzuki is now famous for. Suzuki's visual experimentation lead to conflicts with Nikkatsu. After Tattooed Life, the studio warned him to stop making films that had a jarring visual style to them. After arguably his most famous film, Branded to Kill (1967), he was fired from Nikkastsu and was unable to direct a film until 1977.

Tokyo Drifter (1966)

Tokyo Drifter is a simple tale of a reformed hitman who gets into complications with other gangs. What makes the movie really stand out is it's use of vibrant colors and abstract sets. To say that this movie oozes with style is almost an understatement. I wrote about film noir in my last entry and I will say that this is almost as anti-noir as you could get. As most noir films use dark lighting, Tokyo Drifter is the complete opposite where everything is extremely bright and colorful. It's funny because the movie tricks you in a way. The movie opens up in black and white, but subsequent sequences that come after have a heavy use of primary colors in the background.

My Personal Experience with Tokyo Drifter. This was the second movie directed by Suzuki that I watched. Suzuki once said, "I make movies that make no money and make no sense." While I watched this movie, I didn't even care about the story because the directer and writer didn't care about a telling a coherent story. Instead, Suzuki wanted to engage the audience with every detail that you see on screen. When the film would cut to a new shot,I kept saying in my head 'that's my favorite shot.' It was like looking at a collection of great still photographs and being being impressed by each new one. My favorite moment in the film is when it is when late in the movie the look and setting completely changes to a snowy landscape. The use of whites gave the movie a completely new look that I did not expect would come.

Tokyo Drifter (1966)

Branded to Kill (1967)

Branded to Kill has more of satirical tone than Tokyo Drifter. After the release of Tokyo Drifter, Suzuki was warned again by the studio to stop making these bizarre and eccentric films. Describing the "plot" is not that important. All I will say is that this movie has a lot of butterflies and rice. Branded to Kill was a commercial failure that didn't make any money which lead to Suzuki being fired from making movies. The black and white photography in Branded to Kill is stunning. I don't think I've ever sen higher contrast black and white in a movie. The film is very jazzy, and not because it has a cool jazz score, but because it has a very improvisational feel to the "story." This is probably because Suzuki didn't use any storyboards and basically came up with ideas days before shooting.

My Personal Experience with Branded to Kill. Branded to Kill was one of the movies where I would classify it as a watershed moment. I had no idea who Seijun Suzuki was and I was still very fresh with films from Japan. It was one of the most wildest movies I'd seen in a while. It had a sublime absurdity that attracted me. It had a noir look that was completely unique. The movie is basically one big joke that I like laughing it. Not to say that it's bad because the craft and form is impeccable, but it is difficult to not laugh at the ridiculousness of it. I can't pick one favorite moment from this movie because there are a ton of random things that I loved about this movie. Here are some of my favorite shots from Branded to Kill.

Here is Suzuki talking about about how he constructs his films and his relationship with Nikkastsu. Suzuki also discusses the aesthetic of his films and the unanticipated reception of his work. This video is a good preview of his surreal world that he builds into his movies. It's interesting that he says that he didn't intend Branded to Kill to have a surreal look and feel. Branded to Kill might be his most surreal and visually jarring movie, especially compared to his work from the 1960's. Suzuki's style mixture of pop art and noir has influenced many other contemporary filmmakers. His use of wide frames and eye-popping colors are images that you will never forget. You can tell from watching this video that Suzuki was a director that wanted to make every shot matter. Seijun Suzuki was an interesting visionary director from Japan. His movies not only had an interesting look, but they had a chaotic tone that really grabs me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOPIvMkDWiE

Stay tuned for the next entry where I will be writing about an influential movement in the history of film, The French New Wave.