The fever-dream follow-up to his acclaimed Zigeunerweisen, the enigmatically erotic Kagero-za is the second film in Seijun Suzuki's Taisho Trilogy—this time set in the disjointed cityscapes and surrounding countryside of 1926 Tokyo.

Playwright Matsuzaki (Yusaku Matsuda) crosses paths with a beautiful woman on her way to the hospital who tells him a friend is dying. Frightened of a mysterious older woman who sells the fruit of the Chinese Lantern Plant—rumored to be distaff souls—she implores Matsuzaki to accompany her. At first he refuses, but later finds himself so obsessed with this luminous apparition that he wants nothing more than a life of carnality and excessive passion. Matsuzaki eventually follows a trail of messages left by his phantasmal enchantress across the country to Kanazawa—only to realize he is actually being lured to his own certain demise. 

Suzuki Bio/Filmography
Original Theatrical Trailer
Original Key Art/Press Images
Print Essay on Suzuki and Taisho Trilogoy