Zigeunerweisen(HKAFF 2017)

After being blacklisted for a decade, Suzuki Seijun made a triumphant return with this dreamlike drama that refused distribution by exhibitors, played Japan in a travelling tent. Based on the novel Disk of Sarasate by Uchida Hyakken, with a title taken from Pablo de Sarasate's violin composition Zigeunerweisen, the film is an astonishingly-realised meditation on desire and obsession taking place during the Taisho Period (1912-1926), when Western culture became assimilated into Japan. Two childhood friends, the suit-wearing Aochi and the kimono-garbed Nakasago, meet as adults and simultaneously fall for geisha Koine. Both marry other women, but as their lives spiral into decadence, Koine remains an elusive, haunting figure that refuses to leave them.