The Criterion Collection

Tokyo Drifter

Edition no. 39

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Release Date: Tuesday, 23 February 1999
Country of Release: USA
MSRP: $29.95

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Licensor Information

Nikkatsu Co.

Directed by: Seijun Suzuki, Mizuho Suzuki

Featuring: Tetsuya Watari, Chieko Matsbara, Hideaki Nitani, Tamio Kawachi, Tsuyoshi Yoshida, Ryuji Kita

In this free-jazz gangster film, reformed killer "Phoenix" Tetsu drifts around Japan, awaiting his own execution until he's called back to Tokyo to help battle a rival gang. Seijun Suzuki's "barrage of aestheticised violence, visual gags, [and] mind-warping color effects" got him in more trouble with Nikkatsu studio heads, who had ordered him to "play it straight this time." Instead he gave them equal parts Russ Meyer, Samuel Fuller, and Nagisa Oshima. Criterion presents the DVD premiere of Tokyo Drifter in a lush color transfer from the original, glorious Nikkatsu-scope master.

Year: 1966
Time: 82 min.