Pale Flower

『乾いた花』
Kawaita hana

Presented with the support of the John and Miyoko Davey Endowment Fund for Classic Film.

35mm Presentation. After a three-year stint in the penitentiary, rough-hewn yakuza Muraki (Ryo Ikebe) returns to the dimly lit gambling dens of postwar Tokyo in Masahiro Shinoda’s 1964 nuberu bagu (new wave) breakthrough. Within the claustrophobic halls of shuffling hanafuda cards and a sweaty haze of fanning bodies and irezumi-clad gamblers, Muraki notices the enigmatic angel-faced Saeko (Mariko Kaga), a thrillseeker on a losing streak who bets large sums with reckless abandon. Plagued by a pathological desire to “feel alive”—needing something to fill their inner emptiness and ennui—the pair seek out grander excitements with high stakes gambling as they spiral into a death drive of exhilaration, violence and amour fou. Inspired by Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs du Mal, Shinoda’s Pale Flower inhabits a world of meaninglessness with its barren love affair, accentuated by Toru Takemitsu and Yuji Takahashi’s sparse atonal arrangements, high contrast black-and-white photography and Mariko Kaga’s career-defining role as Saeko, a wilting flower of inestimable beauty and destruction.

Dir. Masahiro Shinoda, 1964, 35mm, 96 min., b&w, in Japanese with English subtitles. With Ryo Ikebe, Mariko Kaga, Isao Sasaki.

Part of John and Miyoko Davey Classics
Year-round screenings of beloved classics, restorations, and rediscoveries of classic Japanese cinema, offering a new cinematic canon from across the scope of Japanese cinema. Presented with the John and Miyoko Davey Endowment Fund for Classic Japanese Film.

© 1964 Shochiku.

Japan Society programs are supported by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

Film programs are generously supported by ORIX Corporation USA, public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, Anime NYC and Yen Press. Endowment support is provided by the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Endowment Fund and The John and Miyoko Davey Endowment Fund. Additional season support is provided by The Globus Family, George P. Hirose, David Toberisky, Joseph Rajaratnam and Dharshini Iolanthe Sivakumaran, and Film Circle members.

Transportation assistance is provided by Japan Airlines, the official Japanese airline sponsor of Japan Society Film Program. Housing assistance is provided by the Prince Kitano New York, the official hotel sponsor of Japan Society Film Program.