Japanese director Seijun Suzuki dies aged 93

By   |  Feb 23, 2017

The Japanese film director Seijun Suzuki, best known for cult 1960s yakuza films ‘Tokyo Drifter’ and ‘Branded to Kill’, has died at the age of 93. Suzuki passed away on 13 February, with the cause of death given as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Born in 1923, Suzuki earned his degree at a Tokyo Trade School before being recruited into the Imperial Japanese Army where he attained the rank of Second Lieutenant in the Meteorological Corps. After returning home in 1946, he failed to make the academic moves that he originally intended and wound up joining the Shochiku studio as an assistant director. Despite spending most of his time as “a melancholy drunk”, he was still hired by the newly reopened Nikkatsu in 1954 and two years later he made the step up to director for the pop-song movie ‘Victory Is Mine’.

Suzuki spent the next decade making B-movies and programme fillers, although they did not prove popular with Nikkatsu as they constantly ordered him to tone down his style. His two most popular works, ‘Tokyo Drifter’ and ‘Branded to Kill’, were made just a year apart from each other and eventually proved to be his downfall at the studio. They felt his films were incomprehensible and he was fired in 1968.

Suzuki returned to film-making in 1977 with Shochiku’s ‘A Tale of Sorrow and Sadness’, before making a trilogy of ghost stories set in the early 20th century Taishō period: ‘Zigeunerweisen’ (1980), ‘Kagero-za’ (1981) and ‘Yumeji’ (1991). It wasn’t until the 90s however, that his talent was acknowledged following a touring film season, entitled ‘Branded to Thrill’, with associated book and DVD releases.

Although his health was failing, he still went on to make a ‘Branded to Kill’ remake called ‘Pistol Opera’ in 2001, and in 2005 he made his final film; the oddball musical ‘Princess Raccoon’, featuring Zhang Ziyi.

Seijun Suzuki

Thanks to The Guardian

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