Tattooed Life | Limited Edition | Blu-ray

Often considered Japan's answer to Jean-Luc Goddard, Seijun Suzuki can be something of a difficult director to approach for uninitiated viewers. Originally something of a workaday crime-drama director for Nikkatsu, his acrimonious split with the company became a cause celeb and launched him as an independent voice in deconstructionist, avant-garde cinema.

Tattooed Life represents the first strike in Suzuki's split from formal convention. On its surface, a ninkyo (chivalry) film, about a heroic yakuza searching desperately to leave his criminal past behind, Suzuki builds slowly and cautiously to an operatic finale. A toned-down, simple film suddenly bursting with color and life and experimental camerawork.

Tattooed Life was followed by Tokyo Drifter and then Branded to Kill, carving out Suzuki's reputation as a true auteur, and ending his time as a studio filmmaker. Of all the director's works, I find this to be the most enjoyable balance of narrative strength and artistic experimentation. A great place to start approaching Suzuki's filmography.

Special Features (via radiance.co.uk)

• High-Definition digital transfer
• Uncompressed mono PCM audio
• Audio commentary by William Carroll, author of Seijun Suzuki and Postwar Cinema (2024)
• Newly edited archival interview with Seijun Suzuki (2006, 10 mins)
• Newly edited archival interview with art director Takeo Kimura (2006, 12 mins)
• Trailer
• Newly improved English subtitle translation
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Time Tomorrow
• Limited edition booklet featuring new writing by Tom Vick and a newly translated archival review of the film
• Limited edition of 3000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and marking