Black Lizard

The first film that Fukasaku made by a studio other than Toei and also the first film in which he turned his back on the action genre. Based on the brilliant dialogues of Mishima Yukio, the film tells in sumptuous images the story of the perverse love and the haggling between a beautiful thief girl and a private detective. A jeweller has received a letter from a mysterious thief who calls herself the ‘black lizard’ and announces she is planning to steal a valuable diamond. The jeweller hires the well-known private detective Akechi Kogoro, after which battle commences between him and the thief. The ‘black lizard’ pretends to be an enchanting and affluent married woman and kidnaps the pretty daughter of the jeweller. Akechi penetrates into the thief’s hiding place and there finds the black lizard’s collection of stuffed corpses. The two debate several times the relationship between beauty and crime and imperceptibly fall in love with each other. Actor Maruyama Akihiru (now Miwa Akihiru) became a popular singer in drag. Mishima Yukio adapted for him/her the original story by Edogawa Ranpo for theatre. The perverted sense of aesthetics present in the play return in the film, augmented by the use of colour and pictures of the work of Aubrey Beardsley. In this way the film provides an insight into the sense of eroticism and romance in the work of Fukasaku. The film was well-received by Japanese audiences, was also embraced by the gay scene and attracted more attention abroad than other films by Fukasaka. In 1969 Fukasaku again cooperated with Maruyama Akihiru on Kuro bara no yakata/(Mansion of) The Black Rose.