|
SURI
|
 |
Japan
2000 / 35 mm / Color / 112 min.
|
|
|
|
|
PICKPOCKET
The commuters in the crowded train are heading to work but Kaito and Rei are already on the job. Kaito and Rei are hakoshi, pickpockets. They work as a team. While Rei lets herself be groped, Kaito moves in to lift the groper's wallet. They have an audience too: Yaoita, a middle-aged police detective who used to consider Kaito an important prey but now regards him as just an aging alcoholic. Go ahead, I won't arrest you, Yaoita whispers scornfully in Kaito's ear, I know you have to earn a living. Rei has lived with Kaito since her childhood and when she's not helping him pick pockets she works at an animal protection centre. Rei learned her pocket-picking skills from Kaito and now he has a new apprentice, Kazuki, a young card shark who is fascinated by Rei's technique and would like to get into the trade himself. Rei is wary of Kazuki, however. Her brother Akira was once allied with Kaito but now he competes against Kaito and Rei with his own gang of pickpockets. Rei fears that this will happen with Kazuki as well. Alcoholism has begun to corrode Kaito's skills, but Rei remains fiercely protective. She has no one else to believe in.
|
|
|
Script: Katsuhiko Manabe, Yasuyuki Tsutsumi, Kazuo Kuroki.
Phot.: Koichi Kawakami.
Ed.: Kazuo Kuroki.
Mus.: Teizo Matsumura.
Cast: Yoshio Harada, Jun Fubuki, Kirina Mano, Shuji Kashiwabara, Mituru Hirata, Teruyuki Kagawa, Atushi Kawashima, Yuji Kishimoto, Hiroko Isayama, Renji Ishibashi.
Prod.: Junichi Matsushita, Tomiyasu Ishikawa, Art Port Inc., 5F MA Bldg., 1-2-23 Higashi Shibuya-ku, Tokyo (Japon), t�l.: (81-3) 5469 8735, fax: (81-3) 5469 8736 / Eisei Gejko Co., Ltd. / Matsushita Agency Inc., t�l.: (81-3) 3797 6255, fax: (81-3) 3797 6257.
|
|
Kazuo Kuroki
Born in Matsuzaka, Japan in 1930, Kazuo Kuroki studied political science at Doshisha University before deciding he preferred the cinema. In 1954 he joined the Iwanami Film Production Company as an assistant director. He also apprenticed as an assistant editor before getting his chance at directing in 1957. After making several documentaries for Iwanami, he became an independent director in 1962. His filmography includes: THE DIARY OF A MARATHON RUNNER (1964), SILENCE HAS NO WINGS (1965), LOVERS IN CUBA (1969), THE ASSASSINATION OF RYOMA (1974), UNTIL SUNSET (1980), THE BRIDGE OF TEARS (1983), TOMORROW (1988) et RONINGAI (1990). |
