Pale Flower (#564)

In this cool, seductive jewel of the Japanese New Wave, ayakuza,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-blackPale Flower(Kawaita hana) is an unforgettable excursion into the underworld.

SPECIAL FEATURES

• New high-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
• New video interview with director Masahiro Shinoda
• Selected-scene audio commentary by film scholar Peter Grilli, coproducer ofMusic for the Movies: Toru Takemitsu
• Original theatrical trailer
• New and improved English subtitle translation
• PLUS: A new essay by film critic Chuck Stephens

  New cover by Michael Boland