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- Title
Colour and Chaos: Unpacking the Mise-en-scène of Tokyo Drifter's Reshot Finale.
- Authors
MILLER, ADAM LEE
- Abstract
Seijun Suzuki is an oft-overlooked Japanese filmmaker who evolved from a studious, hardworking genre filmmaker, to a director who wilfully contorted tropes and rules he had spent years learning. In his heyday, he worked for Nikkatsu Studios, and made 40 films for them in the space of just 15 years. In 1967, he was unceremoniously fired from Nikkatsu after releasing Branded to Kill, now a cult classic that garners critical acclaim, which was deemed nonsensical and unprofitable by the head of Nikkatsu, Kyusaku Hori. Tokyo Drifter was the third to last film Suzuki made with Nikkatsu, and its psychedelic colour palette, lack of continuity, and counter-intuitive framing and editing confused and annoyed Suzuki's bosses. It caused so much tension that Suzuki was ordered to recreate the final scene, which is far more action-packed than his original vision, but no less strange. This paper tries to break down this rushed reshoot, and argues that some of Suzuki's original ideas remain, albeit in a very coded manner.
- Subjects
SUZUKI, Seijun, 1923-2017; CAREER development; ABILITY; MOTION pictures
- Publication
Mise-en-Scène, 2018, Vol 3, Issue 2, p47
- ISSN
2560-7065
- Publication type
Article