The Shape of Night (bluray) standard edition

The Shape of Night (1964)

Directed by Noboru Nakamura, The Shape of Night tells the story of a young woman from the countryside (Miyuki Kuwano of Oshima’s Cruel Story of Youth) who falls in love with a handsome hoodlum (Mikijiro Hira, Sword of the Beast), and is pushed into a life of prostitution.

When his sleazy superiors catch sight of her, she finds herself trapped inside the gaudy maze of city nightlife.

Japanese film-maker Noburo Nakamura, was a veteran of the Shochiku studio’s signature Golden Age family dramas. THE SHAPE OF NIGHT was made as a reaction to the radical film styles of the Japanese New Wave. With its lush cinematography full of saturated colours, a lyrical tone and its story of love leading to inescapable tragedy, it has been compared to the films of Douglas Sirk, while also acting as a precursor to the work of Wong Kar Wai.