Story of movie Pale Flower :
Pale Flower (???? Kawaita hana) is a 1964 Japanese film noir directed by Masahiro Shinoda. The film is about Muraki (Ryo Ikebe) a Yakuza hitman just released from prison. At an illegal gambling parlor, he finds himself drawn to a mysterious young woman named Saeko (Mariko Kaga). Though Saeko loses large sums of money, she asks Muraki to find games with larger and larger stakes. The two become involved in an intense mutually destructive relationship. Film critic Roger Ebert gave Pale Flower four stars and put it on his list of Great Movies.
| Pale Flower | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Masahiro Shinoda |
| Written by | Masaru Baba Masahiro Shinoda |
| Story by | Shintaro Ishihara |
| Starring | Ryo Ikebe Mariko Kaga Takashi Fujiki Chisako Hara |
| Music by | Toru Takemitsu |
| Cinematography | Masao Kosugi |
| Distributed by | Shochiku |
Release date |
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Running time | 96 minutes |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
Screenplay
Director Shinoda was influenced by Charles Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du mal while making the film. Shinoda chose the subject of yakuza as he felt the yakuza world is the only place where a Japanese ceremonial structure is sustained.
When screenwriter Masaru Baba saw Shinoda's film focus on visual and sound, he complained to the managers at the company Shochiku. This led to a nine-month delay of the film's release.
Home video
Homevision released a Region 1 DVD of Pale Flower on November 18, 2003. The Criterion Collection have released a new DVD and Blu-ray edition of the film that features a new video interview with Masahiro Shinoda and selected-scene audio commentary by film scholar Peter Grilli .
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