Gate of Flesh

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.

Japan
1964
90 minutes
Color
2.35:1
Japanese
Spine #298

Special Features

New, restored high-definition digital transfer
Interview with director Seijun Suzuki and production designer Takeo Kimura
Stills gallery of rare archival production photos and art
Original theatrical trailer
New and improved English subtitle translation
PLUS: An essay by noted Asian-cinema critic Chuck Stephens

New cover by Neil Kellerhouse

DVD 1 Disc $20.96 SRP: $29.95

Special Features

New, restored high-definition digital transfer
Interview with director Seijun Suzuki and production designer Takeo Kimura
Stills gallery of rare archival production photos and art
Original theatrical trailer
New and improved English subtitle translation
PLUS: An essay by noted Asian-cinema critic Chuck Stephens

New cover by Neil Kellerhouse

Cast & Credits

Cast

Joe Shishido: Shintaro Ibuki
Yumiko Nogawa: Borneo Maya
Satoko Kasai: Komasa Sen
Koji Wada: Abe
Tomiko Ishii: Roku
Kayo Matsuo: Mino
Misako Tominaga: Machiko
Keisuke Noro: Ishii
Chico Rolando: Catholic Priest

Credits

Director: Seijun Suzuki
Music: Naozumi Yamamoto
Editing: Akira Suzuki
Production design: Takeo Kimura
Cinematography: Shigeyoshi Mine
Screenplay: Goro Tanada
From the novel by: Taijiro Tamura
Producer: Kaneo Iwai

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Explore

Seijun Suzuki

Director

According to critic Manohla Dargis, “To experience a film by Japanese B-movie visionary Seijun Suzuki is to experience Japanese cinema in all its frenzied, voluptuous excess.” Suzuki played chaos like jazz in his movies, from the anything-goes yakuza thrillers Tokyo Drifter and Branded to Kill to the daring postwar dramas of human frailty Gate of Flesh and Story of a Prostitute to the twisted coming-of-age story Fighting Elegy; he never concerned himself with moderation, cramming boundless invention into his beautifully composed frames, both color and black-and-white. Suzuki first pursued film after returning home to Tokyo from service in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II and failing university entrance exams. Following an unsatisfying stint as an assistant director at Shochiku, Suzuki was lured in 1954 to the recently reopened Nikkatsu studio, which was hiring fresh talent to appeal to a new kind of youth audience. He flourished there for years, with such films as Take Aim at the Police Van and especially Youth of the Beast, a commercial breakthrough for him. Yet his bosses became more and more opposed to his increasingly surreal visual stylings and lack of attention to narrative coherence, and after he made Branded to Kill, which a superior deemed “incomprehensible,” they unceremoniously (and illegally) revoked his contract. Of course, as any true Suzuki fan (and they are legion) knows, the incomprehensibility is part of the fun, and today his sixties works are considered some of the most essential of the Japanese New Wave.