‘You will not have seen anything quite like it before’ Derek Malcolm, The Guardian
‘A film of phenomenal all-round accomplishment’ Time Out
Strange, sumptuous and visually stunning, this wildly melodramatic tale of a kabuki female impersonator who exacts a long-delayed revenge on the men who drove his parents to suicide is played out against a colourful backdrop of comic rivalries between thieves in the Tokyo underworld. Kazuo Hasegawa stars, in the dual role of the actor and a thief, in a film which celebrates his 300th screen appearance.
A heady cocktail of swooning romanticism and highly stylised action, with an outstanding soundtrack that ranges from traditional Japanese music to lush Hollywood strings and cocktail jazz, An Actor’s Revenge is a cinematic tour de force.
Extras
New 4K restoration presented in High Definition and Standard Definition
New audio commentary by critic, programmer, and Japanese film expert Tony Rayns
100 Years of Japanese Film (Nagisa Oshima, 1995, 52 mins): the award winning director of In the Realm of the Senses (1976), explores the first century of Japanese cinema
Oriental Splendour, Japan Pays Homage, To Rid Their Souls of Evil, and In Old Japan (1927-1930, 4 mins): four films about Japan made for the Topical Budget newsreel
Fully illustrated booklet with new writing by James Bell, Espen Bale, and Vic Pratt, plus original review and full film credits
