Connor Jessup on Seijun Suzukis TOKYO DRIFTER, POP JAPAN, TIFF 2023

Seijun Suzuki superfan Connor Jessup on where to get started on the prolific director s work. Tasked with making a vehicle for actorsinger Tetsuya Watari to croon the title song, Suzuki concocted Tokyo Drifter (1966) s crazy yarn about a reformed yakuza on the run from his former comrades. The film features an escalating series of playful musical numbers and overthetop fight scenes. Popping with garish colours, selfparodic style, and avantgarde visual design, Tokyo Drifter embodies a late1960s zeitgeist in which camp and high art joyfully commingle. POP Japan is a series celebrating the convergence of the cult, pulp, and popular in Japanese film and art, running at TIFF Bell Lightbox from May 10 to June 27. POP Japan includes three film series: Seijun Suzuki, marking the iconoclast directors centenary with six newly restored 35mm prints; World of Anime, a survey of Japans most influential anime, cocurated by Yuki Ohsawa; and Miyazaki Spotlight, a fourfilm ode to the godfather of anim