Zigeunerweisen (1980) on Netflix
In a seaside village, professor Aochi meets Nakasago, a former colleague now wandering, chased by a crowd over a fisherman's wife's death. Both are drawn to Koine, a mourning geisha.
- Netflix3.5/5
- IMDb6.9/101,667 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
Trailer
Plot summary
Aochi teaches German at a university and spends a holiday in a small seaside town, where he comes across Nakasago, a former colleague who has left settled work behind to wander. A crowd is after Nakasago over the death of a fisherman's wife. Over dinner the two men meet Koine, a geisha in mourning, and each is drawn to her. Six months on, Aochi visits Nakasago and finds him living with Sono, a woman who closely resembles Koine, and expecting a child with her. Nakasago puts the record of Zigeunerweisen on the gramophone, and the two listen for murmuring that can hardly be made out.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Zigeunerweisen (1980)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Producer Genjiro Arato could not find exhibitors for Zigeunerweisen, so he screened it himself through his company Cinema Placet in a specially built, inflatable, mobile tent.
- Seijun Suzuki was terminated from his Nikkatsu Studios contract in 1968 for making "movies that make no sense and no money" and blacklisted; meeting with his crew at his home in later years led to Zigeunerweisen and Kagero-za, the first two films of his Taishō Roman Trilogy.
- The story was judged too short for a film and was expanded from the director's conversations with writer Yōzō Tanaka; when Tanaka's uncle died during that time, Tanaka saw that the cremated bones were pink, a detail worked into the screenplay.
- Critics named Zigeunerweisen the "must-see" film of 1980, and it won four Japanese Academy Awards and reignited Seijun Suzuki's career.
