Seijun Suzuki

Japanese filmmaker actor and screenwriter. His films are renowned by film enthusiasts worldwide for their jarring visual style irreverent humour nihilistic cool and entertainmentoverlogic sensibility. He made 40 predominately Bmovies for the Nikkatsu Company between 1956 and 1967 working most prolifically in the yakuza genre. His increasingly surreal style began to draw the ire of the studio in 1963 and culminated in his ultimate dismissal for what is now regarded his magnum opus Branded to Kill 1967 starring notable collaborator Joe Shishido. Suzuki successfully sued the studio for wrongful dismissal but he was blacklisted for 10 years after that. As an independent filmmaker he won critical acclaim and a Japanese Academy Award for his Taishou Trilogy Zigeunerweisen 1980 Kageroza 1981 and Yumeji 1991.