VOICE WITHOUT A SHADOW

“According to critic Manohla Dargis, ‘To experience a film by Japanese B-movie visionary Seijun Suzuki is to experience Japanese cinema in all its frenzied, voluptuous excess.’ Suzuki played chaos like jazz in his movies; he never concerned himself with moderation, cramming boundless invention into his beautifully composed frames, both color and black-and-white.” -- The Criterion Collection

Nikkatsu, the oldest film studio in Japan, inaugurated a star system in the late 1950s, finding talent and contracting them to a series of wild genre pictures. These “Diamond Guys” films are relatively new to the U.S., and feature Nikkatsu’s leading talent at the peak of their game.

An old hand at tough guy action roles, Hideaki Nitani (TOKYO DRIFTER, MASSACRE GUN) stars in Seijun Suzuki’s VOICE WITHOUT A SHADOW. Former telephone operator Asako once heard the voice of a murder suspect, which has continued to haunt her. Years later her husband invites his boss over for dinner -- and she realises his voice is suspiciously like that of the killer. Before she can investigate further, the boss is found dead and her husband becomes the prime suspect.