, also titled ''Blood Thirsty'', is a 1960 Japanese

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

written and directed by Yoshishige Yoshida and starring Keiji Sada. It is Yoshida's second film and an early exponent of the

Japanese New Wave The is a term for a group of loosely-connected Japanese films and filmmakers between the late 1950s and part of the 1970s. The most prominent representatives include directors Nagisa Ōshima, Yoshishige Yoshida, Masahiro Shinoda and Shōhei I ...

Plot

During a meeting, the executives of a small company in

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

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 as part of a double bill with

Nagisa Ōshima was a Japanese filmmaker, writer, and left-wing activist who is best known for his fiction films, of which he directed 23 features in a career spanning from 1959 to 1999. He is regarded as one of the greatest Japanese directors of all time, and ...

's '' Night and Fog in Japan''. It was pulled out of the cinemas by producer and distributor

Shochiku is a Japanese entertainment company. Founded in 1895, it initially managed '' kabuki'' theaters in Kyoto; in 1914, it also acquired ownership of the Kabuki-za theater in Tokyo. In 1920, Shochiku entered the film production industry and establis ...

a few days later together with Ōshima's film in the wake of the assassination of Japanese Socialist Party politician

Inejirō Asanuma was a Japanese politician and leader of the Japan Socialist Party. During World War II, Asanuma was aligned with the Imperial Rule Assistance Association and advocated for Pacific War, war in Asia. Asanuma later became a forceful advocate of s ...

by far right student

Otoya Yamaguchi was a Japanese right-wing Ultranationalism (Japan), ultranationalist youth who assassinated Inejirō Asanuma, chairman of the Japan Socialist Party, on 12 October 1960. Yamaguchi rushed the stage and stabbed Asanuma with a wakizashi-like shor ...

Legacy

''Blood Is Dry'' was screened at the

Centre Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the (), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English and colloquially as Beaubourg, is a building complex in Paris, France. It was designed in the style of high-tech architecture by the architectural team of ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, in 2008 and at the Harvard Film Archive in 2009 as part of retrospectives on Yoshida's work.

Home media

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

References

External links

* {{Yoshishige Yoshida 1960 films 1960 drama films Japanese drama films Japanese black-and-white films Films directed by Yoshishige Yoshida 1960s Japanese-language films 1960s Japanese films