Also known as An Actor's Revenge, director Kon Ichigawa combines stylized pulp and arthouse purity in a film built of precise, rhythmic compositions, illicit conversations half concealed by foreground objects, a comically loose patter of dialogue hiding razor sharp intent. The theatrical staging, traditionally japanese, is swathed in saturated mid-century film stock, and a hip 60's soundtrack. A suggestion of international modernism makes the film seem timeless and fresh, though the improbable material dates back to the 1930's.

Woman of the Dunes

Barren and sensual, desperate and resigned, Hiroshi Teshigahara channels the surrealism of Kobo Abe in this film of entrapment and drudgery in a ghostly nowhere town. Moments of fluid beauty punctuate the unremitting emotional desolation of the collective life.