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After Seijun Suzuki directed what would eventually become his most popular film, Branded to Kill, Nikkatsu fired him. He successfully sued them for breach of contract, but that led him to be blacklisted from the Japanese studio system for a decade. In 1977, Shochiku hired him to make this film (more commonly known as Story of Sadness and Sorrow). It's a very odd potboiler about a sports magazine that hires a model (Yoko Shiraki) to become a professional golfer. They previously promoted a famous Olympic gymnast, but once she became too famous, she left them behind. This time, they plan on keeping their new cash cow under wraps. After winning her first tournament, Shiraki becomes an overnight sensation and gets her own television show. While riding home with her manager and lover (Yoshio Harada, who would go on to star in several of Suzuki's later films), they are involved in a hit-and-run accident. The injured woman (Kyoko Enami), Shiraki's neighbor and stalker, then blackmails her to feed vicariously off her fame. The plot, as I said, is quite odd, and not all that well told. It does pick up when Enami is introduced. This is far from Suzuki's best work, but it is, as one might expect, visually interesting (much more so than his somewhat boring Taisho trilogy, which followed directly afterward) and quite well acted. The Region 1 DVD was released in 2009 by Cinema Epoch. I only found out about it a few weeks ago (mostly because I had always known of the film as Story of Sadness and Sorrow). I almost passed it by because the reviews on Amazon are very harsh toward the DVD itself. Thankfully, the quality is far better than I had read. The biggest problem cited was that there seem to be missing subtitles. It is true, there are small handful of lines which apparently didn't get translated. I'm not sure if this was a mistake or just lousy production, but, really, it's not that bad. There are two sequences in particular with missing subtitles, and the gist of what's being said is pretty obvious. It's disappointing, sure, but, in the age of DVD, we're more than a little spoiled. Back in the VHS days, it would have been unheard of to see 95% of the lines translated. If you were even luckier, you'd be able to read those subtitles some of the time. This DVD is more than acceptable. And, most importantly, the picture looks tremendous.

My favorite Suzuki so far. The plot might seem a bit convoluted to some but to me that is one of its biggest strenghts. It feels like watching two or three very short but very good films. The first one a sports movie, the second one a really good suspenseful thriller and the third one just pure madness. The last segment of the film felt to me (who has just first watched this film in 2022) like Aronofsky's Mother but significantly better and its not even fair to compare. I always thought Seijun Suzuki was really good but in this one he is absolutely killing it. The visuals, the colors, that one tone of green (if you watched fang in the hole you know what tone im talking about), the soundtrack (and sometimes the abscence of it) the pacing, everything. Really really impressed by this one.

This is a magnificent piece of work. The irony is that if you're reading this, you already saw it, and if you're not reading this, you're either a non-English-speaking Japanese person, or someone else who will never hear of this film.

Suzuki is one of the best. Always challenging, always rewarding. Trademark to his wild perspective is that he's called it "Tale of Sorrow", but it's so funny and entertaining. It's weird, cool, unexpected, sexy...everything a really jaded art-wastrel is looking for.

If you liked "Kill Bill", you need to see Suzuki's "Tattooed Life".

This film is Highly Recommended. Recently viewed: Documentary "America The Beautiful", Neil Jordan's near-perfect pulp "Interview With The Vampire", lots of pornography, Cannes winner "Dogtooth", Louis CK's amazing television show.

RIP Neil Armstrong.