Pale Flower

Masahiro Shinoda's 1964 Pale Flower is a stylish odyssey following an ex-con named Muraki (Ryô Ikebe), who becomes enmeshed in the territorial warfare between rival yakuza clans and also involved with Saeko (Mariko Kaga), a self-destructive young woman addicted to gambling parlors. The film's stark cinematography offers a harsh view of Tokyo's underworld, although a sequence involving a twilight drag race through the Japanese capital is exhilarating. Shinoda balances crisp visuals with an offbeat score by Tôru Takemitsu, most notably incorporating an instrumental version of “It's Now or Never” into a scene of a knife attack in a bowling alley. As the leads in this gangster romance, Ikebe and Kaga bring a haunting, emotional quality to their performances, recalling the unsettling antiheroes of classic American film noir. Pale Flower has a strange history of always missing a chance to find an audience: problems with Japanese censors and the Shochiku production company not only delayed the original release but also limited the film's commercial viability, while U.S. audiences only briefly had a chance to glimpse it during a spotty 1974 art house run. Remastered for DVD and bowing on Blu-ray, this new Criterion Collection release finally brings the film the respect it deserves. Extras include a new interview with Shinoda, select-scene audio commentary by film scholar Peter Grilli, and a booklet with an essay by critic Chuck Stephens. Highly recommended. (P. Hall)