PALE FLOWER (Criterion/eOne, 1964) D: Masahiro Shinoda, w/ Ryo Ikebe, Mariko Kaga. Rating: NNNN DVD package: NNNN Rating: NNNN
A yakuza thug just out of prison for murder falls for a rich girl who gambles in one of his gang’s card rooms. But Pale Flower has nothing to do with conventional romance or redemption through love. Muraki, the thug, and Saeko, the girl, are both dead inside, the kind of hardcore nihilists you find in Jim Thompson novels. They gamble instead of having sex. She’s looking for bigger thrills. Eventually, he shows her the ulti-mate.
Director Masahiro Shinoda makes the tale a noir nightmare with inky shadows, blown-out whites and jagged visual rhythms intensified by the work of composer Toru Takemitsu, whose sound design blends silence, effects and discordant music in a way that was new in 1964.
Takemitsu’s work gets a good analysis in scholar Peter Grilli’s selected scene commentary, and Shinoda delivers a thoughtful half-hour interview, discussing script, casting and Pale Flower as an allegory of 1960s Japan.
EXTRAS Selected scene commentary, director interview, essay booklet. Widescreen, b&w. Japanese audio. English subtitles.
