Kawaita hana

A yakuza thriller meets Charles Baudelaire’s The Flowers of Evil. The penultimate Ninjin Club production marks the breakthrough for fledgling New Wave director Masahiro Shinoda. Shot in Cinemascope, his somber film noir is an existentialist drama centering on the yakuza Muraki (Ryo Ikebe), who returns to his old gang after serving a prison sentence for murder. While gambling in an illegal club, he meets Saeko (Mariko Kaga), a gambler as mysterious as she is daring to whom he feels drawn. What momentarily appears to be a relationship ultimately leads him even deeper into a stylized world of shadows, set to the avant-garde and jazz sounds of Toru Takemitsu and framed by the impressive cinematography. (mg)