Love's Twisting Path

  • 94'
  • Japan
  • 2018

When Nakajima Sadao joined Tōei in 1959 the studio was working on overdrive, producing around 100 films a year. The majority of these were genre movies of the more hard-hitting kind. At first chambara (sword-fighting films), then the yakuza eiga (gangster films) at which Nakajima was to excel, chalking up some 60-plus titles until 1998 when he retired from active duty with Yakuza Ladies: Decision, continuing as a professor at Ōsaka's Geidai.

An alumnus of that university of arts and auteur in his own right, Kumakiri Kazuyoshi served as assistant director to Nakajima when the old master realised his long-cherished dream of making another chambara. This is Love's Twisting Path, a resolutely classical genre beauty about a retired master swordsman drawn into the political maelstrom called bakumatsu: the end of Shogunate rule in mid 19th-century Japan. Knowing his history, Nakajima dedicated the film to Itō Daisuke, the father of all politically alert chambara.

Director
Nakajima Sadao
Premiere
European premiere
Country of production
Japan
Year
2018
Festival Edition
IFFR 2020
Length
94'
Medium
DCP
Original title
Tajûrô jun'ai-ki
Language
Japanese
Producer
Shunsuke Koga
Production Company
Thefool Inc.
Sales
Free Stone Productions
Screenplay
Nakajima Sadao, Tani Keiko
Cinematography
Asakura Yoshito
Editor
Yoneda Takero
Production Design
Ohashi Yutaka
Sound Design
Tashiro Hiroshi
Music
Kuriyama Kazuki
Cast
Kora Kengo, Tabe Mikako, Kimura Ryo
Director
Nakajima Sadao
Premiere
European premiere
Country of production
Japan
Year
2018
Festival Edition
IFFR 2020
Length
94'
Medium
DCP
Original title
Tajûrô jun'ai-ki
Language
Japanese
Producer
Shunsuke Koga
Production Company
Thefool Inc.
Sales
Free Stone Productions
Screenplay
Nakajima Sadao, Tani Keiko
Cinematography
Asakura Yoshito
Editor
Yoneda Takero
Production Design
Ohashi Yutaka
Sound Design
Tashiro Hiroshi
Music
Kuriyama Kazuki
Cast
Kora Kengo, Tabe Mikako, Kimura Ryo