T.A.P.E. Los Angeles is thrilled to present the West Coast premiere of Radiance Film’s new restoration of Seijun Suzuki’s 1977 A Tale of Sorrow and Sadness.

After being fired from the production studio Nikkatsu for making films that he was told “make no sense and make no money” and being blacklisted from filmmaking for 10 years, Seijun Suzuki returned to filmmaking with his 1977 film A Tale of Sorrow and Sadness. Despite the decade away, Suzuki’s experimental and expressionist style is on full display here: social and private intimacy collapses through formal experimentation; golf tournaments, photoshoots, and neighborhood get-togethers transform into anxiety ridden consumerist battlegrounds; splashes of neon and candy colored palettes weave in and out each frame, backdropping a hallucinatory story of corporate commodification and artificial stardom pulling a young model and her community apart.

See the absurdist, chimerical mania that only Suzuki can deliver in Radiance Film’s new restoration of A Tale of Sorrow and Sadness.

Synopsis

After being hand picked by ad executives to be the new face of a fabric corporation, professional model Reiko (Yoko Shiraki) becomes a sports celebrity in a matter of weeks; as her celebrity continues to grow, her environment starts to shift and malform as her sense of self distorts under the voyeuristic gaze of a media and para-social community that want more than she can give.

T.A.P.E. is a Los Angeles-based 501(c)3 nonprofit dedicated to facilitating support for analog media through free digitizing, education, hands-on training, equipment rentals & volunteer opportunities.

The first ever high definition restoration of A Tale of Sorrow and Sadness will be available for pre-order on Blu-ray on 28 April 2025 by Radiance.

Notes and Program by Kellen Lowe