Queer Film Theory 101

In the 1960s, Japanese cinema was in the midst of a renaissance, referred to as the Japanese New Wave period. Supported financially by the studio system, directors like Yoshishige Yoshida, Masahiro Shinoda, and Seijun Suzuki were able to create widely seen films that explored the further reaches of radical politics, violence, sexuality, queerness, and marginalization. Suzuki, in particular, was incredibly prolific, directing 40 films for the Nikkatsu Company from 1956 to 1967 before the film that almost ruined him, his magnum opus, BRANDED TO KILL.