Kagero-za
With Yusaku Matsuda, Michiyo Ogusu, Katsuo Nakamura .
Japan, 1981, 35mm, color, 139 min.
Japanese with English subtitles.
Print source: Japan Foundation
According to film critic Tony Rayns, Kagero-za “may well be Suzuki’s finest achievement outside the constraints of genre filmmaking.” In this hallucinatory adaptation of work by the Taisho era writer Kyoka Izumi, a mysterious woman named Shinako invites Matsuzaki, a playwright, to the city of Kanazawa for a romantic rendezvous. While Matsuzaki is on his way, his patron Tamawaki appears on the train, claiming to be en route to witness a love suicide between a married woman and her lover. Matsuzaki suspects Shinako is Tamawaki’s wife, and the trip to Kanazawa may spell his doom. As in Zigeunerweisen, reality, fantasy, life, and afterlife blend together in Kagero-za—most spectacularly in the grand finale, in which Matsuzaki finds his life morphing into a deranged theatrical extravaganza.
Part of film series
Screenings from this program
Smashing the O-Line
Youth of the Beast
Youth of the Beast
Passport to Darkness
Kanto Wanderer
A Tale of Sorrow and Sadness
