Octogenarian Japanese director Seijun Suzuki is one of the world's very few remaining true cult figures, an iconoclast with a vision so distinct that they'd have had to create auteur theory just for him if the term hadn't already existed. But the thing we often forget when dealing with auteurs is that they often have a key set of supporting staff that share in their vision and make it possible to realize on screen. For Suzuki on of those people is Kimura Takeo. Kimura joined Nikkatsu Studios in 1941 and has served as art director on over two hundred films since, including Suzuki's Fighting Elegy, Tokyo Wanderer, Gate of Flesh and Pistol Opera while serving as production designer for Princess Raccoon. He's also filled key behind the scenes roles in classics such as Tanpopo and The Most Terrible Time In My Life. What he doesn't do very much is direct.
Matouqin Nocturne is only Kimura's third directorial effort and is an abstract piece of work built around the atomic attack on Nagasaki. The female lead is Yamaguchi Sayoko from Pistol Opera and also in a key role is Suzuki himself, in all of his frail splendor.
The trailer for this has appeared online and it's not difficult to surmise from it that Kimura was as much a collaborator as an employee of Suzuki's. The imagery is powerful, striking and very, very distinctive. Here's hoping it makes it to these shores.
Matouqin Nocturne Trailer (downloadable WMV)
Many, many thanks to gentleman scholar Don Brown for helping dig out details on this one. If you don't read his Ryuganji every day then your life is a mere shell of what it could be.