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I, the Executioner

A man brutally murders a woman after forcing her to write the names of four others. As the murders pile up, the police investigate the links between the victims and how they may be connected to the suicide of a young boy in the same building. Directed by Tai Kato (By a Man’s Face Shall You Know Him), a former apprentice of Akira Kurosawa better known for his yakuza films, I, the Executioner is a pitch black neo noir that makes the serial killer the central character. Sensationally photographed with claustrophobic close ups, Kato’s film evokes both Hitchcock’s Psycho and the films of Nagisa Oshima, while also prefiguring the Italian giallo.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

• High-Definition digital transfer
• Uncompressed mono PCM audio
• A Serial History - A visual essay on Japanese serial killer films by Jim Harper and Tom Mes (2023, 16 mins)
• Appreciation by filmmaker Kenta Fukasaku (2023, 20 mins)
• Trailer
• Newly translated English subtitles

See also our book on Tai Kato by Tom Mes, the first extended writing dedicated to this genre master, this new book provides a guide to a sensationally overlooked filmmaker to accompany a series of Tai Kato releases from Radiance Films.

Year: 1968
Cert: 18
Format: Blu-ray
Region: B
RAD042BD
EAN: 5060974680795
Release date: 16/12/24

Press:

“up there with Oshima's Violence at Noon and Imamura's Vengeance Is Mine as one of Japan's most disturbing anatomies of a serial killer.” - Tony Rayns

"Tai Kato, best known for his yakuza and period films, pulls out all the stops in this visually arresting, nihilistic modern-day tale of a man on a brutal murder and rape spree, using extreme close-ups and unusually low-angle shots to make his rage viscerally palpable." - Museum of Modern Art