Infused with a panache I've yet to see from Umetsugu Inoue, Black Lizard is a lively piece of retro-pop entertainment that traverses its narrative schematics with an infectious energy that is hard to quantify. Released the same year as Dr. No, Black Lizard projects a heightened sense of reality the bond films would become known for. Artifice isn't withheld but embraced as the film constructs an edifice on top of its cat and mouse detective story which provides ample opportunities for rich, visual tapestries and vivid production design. Black Lizard features an expressivity in its visual designs and a vibrancy to its tonal arrangements which create an experience that is playful, pop-infused, and ultimately heightened well beyond the serious stakes of the story The notorious female jewelry thief Black Lizard comes face-to-face with renowned private detective Akechi, and a game of wits ensues. Their underlying affection for each other slowly calcifying into sexual desire - transfused by mutual respect and admiration that obfuscates the fact that they are on opposite sides of the law or perhaps put, the systems of power at play in society. There is an undercurrent in this film related to the bourgeoisie and issues of class and greed, and in doing so it projects an interesting deconstruction of love. Power and its proclivities towards authority and ego are diametrically opposed to love's intrinsic selflessness and mutualism. The forces at play, both externally in the form of the rich jewelry tycoon and internally in their own egos make their relationship unattainable; Inoue is a dramatist and romantic after all. Predating many of the more stylistic pop-infused caper films that would come to prevalence in the 60s, Black Lizard is another entrancing film from Umetsugu Inoue, who continues to solidify in my mind as one of the most overlooked filmmakers of his era.
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AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
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