Seijun Suzuki

Directing May 24, 1923 Feb 13, 2017 (aged 94) Nihonbashi, Tokyo, Japan

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, Wong Kar-wai and Quentin Tarantino signaled his international discovery. Suzuki has continued making films, albeit sporadically. In Japan, he is more commonly recognized as an actor for his numerous roles in Japanese films and television.

He passed away on February 13th, 2017.

Description above from the Wikipedia article Seijun Suzuki, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

36 Acting Credits

67 Crew Credits

Seijun Suzuki

Acting

Cold Fever

Sleepless Town

Blessing Bell

Embalming

The Story of PuPu

Double Bed

Disciples of Hippocrates

Tales of the Bizarre

Milocrorze: A Love Story

Shiro and Marilyn

Seijun Suzuki: kabuki & yakuzas

The Rain Women

La Belle Fille Masquée Poitrine

MOMENT

Ki no ue no sogyo

I Can't Wait Until It's Dark!

Boy

From the Ruins: Making 'Gate of Flesh'

Let's Get Happy

Pachinko Graffiti

What's a Director?

The Wings of Hakenkreuz

Discontinuous Bombing Incident

Yurika-chan

Crew

Branded to Kill

Tokyo Drifter

Lupin the 3rd

Youth of the Beast

Gate of Flesh

Lupin the Third: The Legend of the Gold of Babylon

Zigeunerweisen

Lupin the Third: Greatest Capers

Story of a Prostitute

Fighting Elegy

Yumeji

Detective Bureau 2-3: Go to Hell, Bastards!