"Pale Flower"
1964
Directed by Masahiro Shinoda

Upon release from prison for murder, a mobster gets involved in a destructive relationship with a woman that leads him back to his prior life. The doomed love and the mobster's existential dilemmas in the subterranean gloom of Tokyo's underworld are made brilliant through Masahiro Shinoda's stunning visual style and Masao Kosugi's stark black-and-white photography. One of cinema's finest yakuza films. Japanese with English subtitles.  96 minutes.