Pale Flower (EOTWS)

End Of The Week Shorts #13 extract: Pale Flower (1964)

Pale Flower is a remarkable film noir from Japan, and is certainly one of my favourites of the genre, ranking way up there with French noirs such as Rififi and Le Samouraï. 

I've never truly liked a classical American film noir, beyond maybe their aesthetics, because they often fail to capture what Pale Flower does so poignantly. As with many other crime films, there is a silent code embedded deeply into the world and characters of Pale Flower. This counterbalances the brooding existentialism and nihilism of the film noir as, though they seem empty and macabre, there can be reasoning, thought and understanding belying this sombre trudge through life. With ideas of honour, loyalty and vigilante justice, the noir is then given meaning and direction, making the experience of the narrative much more rich. 

It's because Pale Flower injects this mafia ethic into its narrative through its depictions of the Yakuza that it is such a worthwhile watch and an exceptional example of film noir.