Blood Is Dry

Blood Is Dry (Japanese: 血は渇いてる, Hepburn: Chi wa kawaiteru), also titled Blood Thirsty, is a 1960 Japanese drama film written and directed by Yoshishige Yoshida and starring Keiji Sada.[1][2][3] It is Yoshida's second film and an early exponent of the Japanese New Wave.[4]

Blood Is Dry
Directed byYoshishige Yoshida
Screenplay byYoshishige Yoshida
Produced byTakeshi Sasaki
Starring
  • Keiji Sada
  • Shin'ichirō Mikami
  • Mari Yoshimura
  • Kaneko Iwasaki
CinematographyTōichirō Narushima
Edited byYoshi Sugihara
Music byHikaru Hayashi
Production
company
Distributed byShochiku
Release date
  • 9 October 1960 (1960-10-09) (Japan)[1][2]
Running time
87 minutes
CountryJapan
LanguageJapanese

Plot

During a meeting, the executives of a small company in Tokyo announce the dismissal of the staff due to the strong competition. Salaryman Takashi pulls a gun and holds it against his temple, declaring that he doesn't care what happens to him as long as the company keeps his other colleagues. A shot is fired and Takashi wounded, but he recovers at the hospital after a few days. Yuki, an employee at the advertising department of a big life insurance company, has the idea to use Takashi for a new marketing campaign. Takashi, first reluctant, but under pressure for not being able to pay his rent, accepts and is marketed as a new "hero". The campaign is a huge success, and Takashi slowly takes a liking in his role of a man who conveys hope and optimism.

Harada, an acquaintance of Yuki who works for a sensationalist weekly magazine, is intent on destroying Takashi's image. He first sleeps with Takashi's wife Ikuyo and takes nude pictures of her, which Takashi buys back. When Harada gets his lover Yōko to pose nude with the drunk Takashi and has them published, Takashi pushes Harada in front of a car. As a consequence, the insurance company cancels the campaign and fires Takashi. Takashi confronts the company executives holding a gun against his temple, but is not taken seriously. Again a shot is fired, and this time Takashi dies of his wounds. The final scene shows Yuki and Harada looking on as a giant billboard with Takashi's portrait is taken down.

Cast
  • Keiji Sada as Takashi Kiguchi
  • Shin'ichirō Mikami as Harada
  • Mari Yoshimura as Yuki
  • Kaneko Iwasaki as Ikuyo, Takashi's wife
  • Masao Oda as Kanai
  • Ichirō Sugai as company boss
  • Yoshi Katō as executive
  • Yūko Kashiwagi as Yōko
  • Asao Sano as Mitsuzawa

Release

Blood Is Dry was released on 9 October 1960[1][2] as part of a double bill with Nagisa Ōshima's Night and Fog in Japan.[5] It was pulled out of the cinemas by producer and distributor Shochiku a few days later together with Ōshima's film[5] in the wake of the assassination of Japanese Socialist Party politician Inejirō Asanuma by far right student Otoya Yamaguchi.[6]

Legacy

Blood Is Dry was screened at the Centre Pompidou, Paris, in 2008[7] and at the Harvard Film Archive in 2009[8] as part of retrospectives on Yoshida's work.

Home media

Blood Is Dry was released on DVD in France in 2008[9] and in Japan in 2013[10] as part of DVD boxes with collected works by Yoshida.

References
  1. "血は渇いてる" (in Japanese). Kinema Junpo. Retrieved 15 July 2023.
  2. "血は渇いてる" (in Japanese). Japanese Movie Database. Retrieved 15 July 2023.
  3. "血は渇いてる" (in Japanese). Shochiku. Retrieved 15 July 2023.
  4. Richie, Donald (2001). "Tokyo rising: how Japan's new wave rose – and broke". British Film Institute. Retrieved 15 July 2023.
  5. "Blood is Dry". Japan Society. Retrieved 15 July 2023.
  6. Turim, Maureen (1998). The Films of Oshima Nagisa: Images of a Japanese Iconoclast. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 51–60.
  7. "Le Sang séché". Centre Pompidou (in French). Retrieved 15 July 2023.
  8. "Blood Thirsty AKA Blood is Dry". Harvard Film Archive. Retrieved 15 July 2023.
  9. "Oeuvres complètes de Kiju Yoshida - Partie 1 - Une nouvelle vague". Bluray.com. Retrieved 15 July 2023.
  10. "吉田喜重DVD-BOX第1集 (Yoshishige Yoshida DVD-Box Vol. 1)". Shochiku Home Entertainment (in Japanese). Retrieved 15 July 2023.
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