Biography
Seijun Suzuki born Seitaro Suzuki (24 May 1923 – 13 February 2017) was a Japanese filmmaker, actor, and screenwriter. His films are renowned by film enthusiasts worldwide for their jarring visual style, irreverent humour, nihilistic cool and entertainment-over-logic sensibility. He made 40 predominately B-movies 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 Taishō Trilogy, Zigeunerweisen (1980), Kagero-za (1981) and Yumeji (1991). His films remained widely unknown outside of Japan until a series of theatrical retrospectives beginning in the mid 1980s, home video releases of key films such as Branded to Kill and Tokyo Drifter in the late 1990s and tributes by such acclaimed filmmakers as Jim Jarmusch, Takeshi Kitano,…
Directed
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Branded to Kill (1967) — Director
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Tokyo Drifter (1966) — Director
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Youth of the Beast (1963) — Director
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Gate of Flesh (1964) — Director
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Lupin the Third: The Legend of the Gold of Babylon (1985) — Director
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Zigeunerweisen (1980) — Director
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Story of a Prostitute (1965) — Director
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Fighting Elegy (1966) — Director
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Yumeji (1991) — Director
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Kagero-za (1981) — Director
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Detective Bureau 2-3: Go to Hell, Bastards! (1963) — Director
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Take Aim at the Police Van (1960) — Director
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Pistol Opera (2001) — Director
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Tattooed Life (1965) — Director
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Underworld Beauty (1958) — Director
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Princess Raccoon (2005) — Director
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The Man with a Shotgun (1961) — Director
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Everything Goes Wrong (1960) — Director
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A Tale of Sorrow and Sadness (1977) — Director
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Eight Hours of Terror (1957) — Director
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Carmen from Kawachi (1966) — Director
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The Sleeping Beast Within (1960) — Director
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Kanto Wanderer (1963) — Director
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Smashing the 0-Line (1960) — Director
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The Flower and the Angry Waves (1964) — Director
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Tokyo Knights (1961) — Director
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Capone Cries a Lot (1985) — Director
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Voice Without a Shadow (1958) — Director
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The Call of Blood (1964) — Director
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Born Under Crossed Stars (1965) — Director
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Teenage Yakuza (1962) — Director
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The Boy Who Came Back (1958) — Director
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The Wind-of-Youth Group Crosses the Mountain Pass (1961) — Director
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The Incorrigible (1963) — Director
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Love Letter (1959) — Director
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Good Evening Dear Husband: A Duel (1968) — Director
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Age of Nudity (1959) — Director
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Fighting Delinquents (1960) — Director
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The Guys Who Put Money on Me (1962) — Director
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Passport to Darkness (1959) — Director
Also appeared in
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Cold Fever (1995) — Hirata's Grandfather
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Sleepless Town (1998) — Ye Xiaodan
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Blessing Bell (2002) — Old Man's Ghost
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Embalming (1999)
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The Story of PuPu (1998) — Old Man
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Double Bed (1983) — Man in Bar
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Disciples of Hippocrates (1980)
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Tales of the Bizarre (1990)
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Milocrorze: A Love Story (2011) — Gazen
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Shiro and Marilyn (1988) — Vet
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Seijun Suzuki: kabuki & yakuzas (2002) — Self - Filmmaker & Screenwriter
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The Rain Women (1990)
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La Belle Fille Masquée Poitrine (1990) — Kami-sama
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MOMENT (1981)
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Ki no ue no sogyo (1997)
- I Can't Wait Until It's Dark! (1975) — Himself
- Boy (2007) — Ryuun Naito
- From the Ruins: Making 'Gate of Flesh' (2005)
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Let's Get Happy (1998)
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Pachinko Graffiti (1992)
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What's a Director? (2006)
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The Wings of Hakenkreuz (2004)
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Discontinuous Bombing Incident (1991)
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Yurika-chan (1997) — Grandpa
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Black Jack 2: Pinoko I Love You (1996)
- Dreaming Awake (2008)
- The Erotic Empire (2002) — self
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SOAR: I Wish You Were Here (2015)
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Sure Death 6 (1996)
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Virgin Road (1989)
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The Moon (2000)
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Matouqin Nocturne (2007)
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The Last Day (2000)
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My Beloved Ultraseven (1993) — Eiji Tsuburaya
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Twist & Shoot: Mister Suzuki — Self (archive footage)
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Good Mourning (1994)