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Japanese Noir

Japanese Noir

6 Episodes

Just as postwar disillusionment infiltrated American pop culture and found its way to Hollywood in the form of film noir, so it did in Japan, where a wave of edgy, existential crime dramas spread like a shadow across the Land of the Rising Sun. With STRAY DOG, Akira Kurosawa applied the chiaroscuro visual style and hard-boiled sensibility of American noir to a corrosive portrait of Japanese society—anticipating a profusion of fatalistic thrillers and policiers that would prove wildly popular throughout the 1950s and ’60s. The so-called “mukokuseki akushun” (“borderless action”) film was a particular specialty of Nikkatsu, the boundary-pushing studio where renegade directors like Seijun Suzuki (YOUTH OF THE BEAST), Shohei Imamura (PIGS AND BATTLESHIPS), Toshio Masuda (RUSTY KNIFE), and Takashi Nomura (A COLT IS MY PASSPORT) frequently jazzed up the pulp formula with elements of the western, comedy, gangster, and teen-rebel genres. Featuring modernist-cool masterpieces like PALE FLOWER and BRANDED TO KILL as well as ripe-for-discovery gems like ZERO FOCUS and INTIMIDATION, these cruel stories of guilt and desperation are a window into the dark heart of postwar Japan.

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Japanese Noir

6 Episodes

  • Stray Dog
    2:02:38
    Stray Dog
    Episode 1

    Stray Dog

    Episode 1

    Directed by Akira Kurosawa • 1949 • Japan
    Starring Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura

    A bad day gets worse for young detective Murakami when a pickpocket steals his gun on a hot, crowded bus. Desperate to right the wrong, he goes undercover, scavenging Tokyo’s sweltering streets for the stray do...

  • The Bad Sleep Well
    2:31:03
    The Bad Sleep Well
    Episode 2

    The Bad Sleep Well

    Episode 2

    Directed by Akira Kurosawa • 1960 • Japan
    Starring Toshiro Mifune, Masayuki Mori, Tatsuya Mihashi

    A young executive hunts down his father’s killer in director Akira Kurosawa’s scathing THE BAD SLEEP WELL. Continuing his legendary collaboration with actor Toshiro Mifune, Kurosawa combines elem...

  • Zero Focus
    1:35:34
    Zero Focus
    Episode 3

    Zero Focus

    Episode 3

    Directed by Yoshitaro Nomura • 1961 • Japan
    Starring Yoshiko Kuga, Hizuru Takachiho, Ineko Arima

    After her husband disappears on a business trip, newlywed Teiko (Yoshiko Kuga) realizes she knows very little about the man she has been married to for only a week. With a pair of mysterious photo...

  • Youth of the Beast
    1:31:47
    Youth of the Beast
    Episode 4

    Youth of the Beast

    Episode 4

    Directed by Seijun Suzuki • 1963 • Japan
    Starring Joe Shishido, Misako Watanabe, Tamio Kawaji

    When a mysterious stranger muscles into two rival yakuza gangs, Tokyo’s underworld explodes with violence. YOUTH OF THE BEAST (YAJU NO SEISHUN) was a breakthrough for director Seijun Suzuki, introduc...

  • High and Low
    2:23:39
    High and Low
    Episode 5

    High and Low

    Episode 5

    Directed by Akira Kurosawa • 1963 • Japan
    Starring Toshiro Mifune, Kyoko Kagawa, Tatsuya Mihashi

    Toshiro Mifune is unforgettable as Kingo Gondo, a wealthy industrialist whose family becomes the target of a cold-blooded kidnapper in HIGH AND LOW (TENGOKU TO JIGOKU), the highly influential dome...

  • Imogen Sara Smith on ZERO FOCUS
    01:31
    Imogen Sara Smith on ZERO FOCUS
    Episode 6

    Imogen Sara Smith on ZERO FOCUS

    Episode 6

    The following interview with critic Imogen Sara Smith was recorded in 2020.

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