A tale of scarfaces

[Abe-Nornes]

At 12:04 AM 2/8/98 -0500, KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu wrote:

>I just got a fax from a film producer in Japan telling me about a film called
>"A 
>tale of scarfaces". It's a 1997 production, directed by Eiichi Kudo ("13 
>assassins")...
>Has anybody already seen this film? It will screen at the Berlin film market 
>(not the festival!) and is, quote: "suitable for video release". Er, are we 
>talking mindless action trash here? Or is the director more known for epic 
>masterpieces? 

It might be worth looking at, although there might be people in KineJapan
who have already seen it or heard the hyoban. The director is interesting.
He started at Toei in 1952, and began directing in 1959 (Sketchbook of Mt.
Fuji). He is known as a excellent director of jidai-geki, and is often
credited with transforming the genre with films like The 13 Assassins
(1963), The Great Sword Fight (1964) and The 11 Samurai (1966). Exactly how
he "renovated" the samurai film is unclear to me. The only one I've seen is
the latter, which builds to an amazing, long ending. Since Toei shifted to
yakuza, he's done many films in that mode as well. I've also seen some of
his television work, and found it stood out for its stylishness. (He's also
quite the gentleman in person.)

amn