Pale Flower, 1964
Muraki (Ryo Ikebe) has just gotten out of prison, and immediately heads back to his old haunts and his old gang. Complicating his return is his fascination with a woman he meets in a gambling den, Saeko (Mariko Kaga), as well as some shifting power balances between the different gangs.
I am already looking forward to rewatching this film at some point. Between this and
Roma, I am just swimming in luxurious black-and-white gorgeousness.
Whether it was just my mood or some quality of the film itself, I found myself only half paying attention to the story proper and mostly enjoying the absolutely beautiful look of the film and its general style. In the last 30 minutes there were two separate sequences that I immediately had to go back and watch a second time. In the first, Muraki is stalked down a lonely road and we watch his unease grow. The second sequence was an eerie scene in which Muraki tells another character about a dream he had---the dream itself shot in part in a very cool slow motion. (Was slow motion down with a different method in older films? Or does it just look better in black and white? I so often find that I really love something about slow motion in older films.)
The actors are very strong in their roles. I particularly enjoyed the look of a secondary character--a young man always dressed in black who in different scenes watches Saeko from the shadows. He is the kind of character who just allegorically seems to represent Death or something. His presences adds to a slightly dream-like mood that the whole film has.
The whole movie is involving, from beginning to end, but I especially have to mention the final scene, which is compelling both in its staging and its content. It was a bold way to end a film, and in the wrong hands it could have soured the whole film. Instead I thought that it was surprising and bracing.
When I saw Masahiro Shinoda's name in the credits I was sure I had seen other films from him, but I have not! This one makes me very excited to check out more of his work.
Highly recommended!