Episode 116 - Masahiro Shinoda’s Pale Flower

Podcast: Download (35.3MB)

This week on the podcast, the team begins a month-long arc of “romance” films by discussing Masahiro Shinoda 1964 film, Pale Flower.

They also discuss the passing of Ben Gazzara, the teasing of an upcoming Robert Downey Sr. Eclipse Set, as well as the possibility that Ingmar Bergman’s Summer With Monika will end up getting a May 2012 release from Criterion on DVD and Blu-ray.

Film discussion begins at 17:55

A big thanks to The 35th Annual Portland International Film Festival (February 9th through the 25th) for supporting the web site and podcast this week. If you’re a local Portlandian, you owe it to yourself to attend this year.

About the film:

In this cool, seductive jewel of the Japanese New Wave, a yakuza, fresh out of prison, becomes entangled with a beautiful and enigmatic gambling addict; what at first seems a redemptive relationship ends up leading him further down the criminal path. Bewitchingly shot and edited, and laced with a fever-dream-like score by Toru Takemitsu, this gangster romance was a breakthrough for the idiosyncratic Masahiro Shinoda. The pitch-black Pale Flower (Kawaita hana) is an unforgettable excursion into the underworld

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