Strange, sumptuous and visually stunning, An Actor's Revenge is a wildly melodramatic tale of a kabuki female impersonator who exacts a long-delayed revenge on the men who drove his parents to suicide. It is played out against a colourful backdrop of comic rivalries between thieves in the Tokyo underworld.
On 26 March the BFI will bring Kon Ichikawa's 1963 film to Blu-ray for the first time in the UK, releasing it in a Dual Format Edition (contains a DVD version). Numerous extras include a new audio commentary by Tony Rayns and a film by Nagisa Oshima that explores the first century of Japanese cinema.
Kazuo Hasegawa stars in the dual role of both the actor and a thief, in a film which celebrated his 300th screen appearance. A heady cocktail of swooning romanticism and highly stylised action, with an outstanding soundtrack that ranges from traditional Japanese music to lush Hollywood strings and cocktail jazz, An Actor's Revenge is a cinematic tour de force.
