Japan House London screens Fighting Elegy (1966), the second film in its season on the cinematic world of Suzuki Seijun. The film is one of the director's most energetic and unruly works, adapted from a novel by Suzuki Takashi.
Set in the 1930s, it follows Nanbu Kiroku, a hot-blooded student who is expelled and sent to Aizu, where he builds a reputation among local thugs through one confrontation after another, while his feelings for a schoolgirl named Michiko grow. Takahashi Hideki stars in one of his most celebrated performances, and the film combines dynamic action, bold visual invention and dark humour.
