The three films directed by Seijun Suzuki in the Taisho Trilogy — Zigeunerweisen, Kagero-za, and Yumeji — are set in 1920s Japan (the title derives from the brief, relatively liberal period of Japanese ''Taisho democracy''). Suzuki had a hip rep as the creator of violent '60s genre flicks, but with this trio he found a new style. Each revolves around a man obsessed with an unattainable woman and the dissolution that results. There are moments of Beckett-style absurdism — two guys pounding each other into the sand until their heads disappear in Zigeunerweisen, for example. Suzuki tapped uniquely into the madness of love; the films are at once hypnotic, disorienting, sloppy, and bursting with energy.
EXTRAS Minimal: a skimpy interview with Suzuki.
