Celebrate Noirvember with a Hollywood-infused silent Japanese gangster flick from a master filmmaker! DRAGNET GIRL screens as part of Silent Revue’s Crimewave, a season dedicated to proto film noir in the silent era.
Before he was universally acknowledged as one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, Yasujirô Ozu was a Hollywood-obsessed director for Tokyo’s legendary Shochiku Studios. Producing silent films well into the 1930s (Japan converted to sound much later than the West), Ozu produced unique masterpieces that reflected the artistic sensibilities of his country. With DRAGNET GIRL, however, Ozu went full Hollywood, evoking the best of Warner Brothers gangster epics like THE PUBLIC ENEMY, LITTLE CAESAR, and SCARFACE. Conflicted gangster Joji (Jôji Oka) seeks redemption in innocent shop girl Kazuko (Sumiko Mizukubo), the sister of one his hoodlums. Things don’t go his way when his jealous girlfriend, the vampy, complicated Tokiko—played by Japan’s greatest actress and future pioneering director Kinuyo Tanaka—utilizes her mob connections to seek revenge!
While influenced by Josef von Sternberg and Warner Brothers, what Ozu achieves is a uniquely his. We can’t wait to share this one with you!
Live accompaniment by Jordan Klapman
Silent Revue is curated by Alicia Fletcher
Silent Revue is sponsored by Hollywood Suite