‘Musicals with guns’ film director Seijun Suzuki dead at 93
TOKYO: Japanese director Seijun Suzuki, whose prolific output from gangster films to fantasies influenced international filmmakers including Quentin Tarantino, has died, his former studio announced on Wednesday. He was 93. Suzuki, known for his “musicals with guns”, died of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease on Feb 13, the Nikkatsu studio said in a statement expressing “deep gratitude and respect to his great achievements”.
In a career spanning five decades, Suzuki’s works “had a great influence on movie fans and film makers around the world,” the company said.
Though Suzuki was not widely known among audiences outside Japan, he had an impact on other directors.
The Hollywood Reporter said he inspired filmmakers including Tarantino, Jim Jarmusch, Wong Kar-wai and fellow countryman Takeshi Kitano.
Suzuki’s cinematic style was recently described by La La Land director Damien Chazelle as “like musicals... but with guns”.
Debuting in 1956, Suzuki directed B-movies at Nikkatsu for 12 years, with his films drawing attention for a unique and vivid sense of colour that his fans came to call “Seijun bigaku (Seijun aesthetic).”
But his work, sometimes derided as strange and hard to understand, wasn’t for everyone.
Kinema- Junposha, which publishes movie-related magazines and books, said Suzuki was fired in 1968 after releasing his gangster opus Branded to Kill.
Nikkatsu’s president deemed his films to be “incomprehensible”.
Suzuki did not return to filmmaking for a decade, despite an outcry from his colleagues and fans as well as court proceedings.
But he roared back in the early 1980s with the surreal mystery Zigeunerweisen, which won the Honourable Mention at the 31st Berlin International Film Festival. — AFP