Tribute to Yasuzô Masumura 2023 / Akai tenshi / Japan 1966
Of the 55 features Masumura directed, The Red Angel is his most celebrated outside Japan – a film that has been amassing a sizeable cult following over the past decade. Set at the peak of the Sino-Japanese War, Ayako Wakao – in her most memorable performance – plays Sakura, a young nurse who is transformed from a rape victim into the titular angel when she starts gifting her patients with sexual relief before their inevitable death. The horrors of war – depicted in disturbingly graphic details unmatched by any other Masumura pic – are front and center here, but it’s the relationship between female agency and love/sex that emerges as the real preoccupation of the film. More than sixty years after its release, the power of The Red Angel has not waned.
Joseph Fahim
95 min / Black & white, DCP
Director Yasuzô Masumura
/ Screenplay Ryozo Kasahara podle předlohy / based on the novel by Yorichika Arima
/ Dir. of Photography Setsuo Kobayashi
/ Music Sei Ikeno
/ Sound Kisao Tobita
/ Editor Tatsuji Nakasizu
/ Art Director Tomoo Fugawara
/ Production DAIEI studio, Kadokawa Corporation
/ Cast Ayako Wakao, Shinsuke Ashida, Yusuke Kawazu
/ Sales Kadokawa Corporation
Kadokawa Corporation
2-13-12 Fujimi, Chiyoda-ku, 102-8552, Tokyo
Japan
Phone: +81 807 233 6972
E-mail: [email protected]
First-hand brews throughout the year.
Be among the first to learn about upcoming events and other news. We only send the newsletter when we have something to say.
