Black Lizard (film)

Black Lizard (黒蜥蝪 Kurotokage) is a 1968 Japanese detective film directed by Kinji Fukasaku.

Contents

• Black lizard 1968
• Cast
• Other credits
• References

The film is based on a 1934 novel by Edogawa Rampo and its theatrical adaptation by Yukio Mishima, who, at the time, was the lover of Akihiro Maruyama, the actor who plays the notorious female criminal "Black Lizard" in drag.

The film's protagonist is Kogoro Akechi, a brilliant detective patterned on Sherlock Holmes who appears in several stories by Edogawa Rampo and is a fixture in Japanese popular culture.

The film currently has no official DVD release, and copies of the film are extremely difficult to find, but it has gained a cult following and is highly regarded by devotees of "kitsch" and "campy" films.

The novel Black Lizard has been published in English by Kurodahan Press in a dual edition with The Beast in the Shadow (a.k.a. Inju) [1].

Cast

Akihiro Maruyama as “Black Lizard,” disguised as Mrs. Midorikawa

Isao Kimura as Detective Kogorō Akechi

Kikko Matsuoka as Sanae Iwase

Junya Usami as Shobei Iwase

Yûsuke Kawazu as Junichi Amamiya

Kō Nishimura as Private Detective Keiji Matoba

Toshiko Kobayashi as Hina

Sonosuke Oda as Harada

Kinji Hattori as Toyama

Kōichi Satō as Ohkawa

Jun Katō as Sakai

Ryūji Funakoshi as Kōzu

Mitsuko Takara as Show Dancer

Tetsurō Tamba as Kuroki

Yukio Mishima as a taxidermic Japanese human specimen

Other credits

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)

Rampo Edogawa: novel

Yukio Mishima: stage adaptation

Masashige Narusawa

Art Direction: Kyōhei Morita

Set Decoration by: Keinosuke Ishiwatari

Costume Design by: Masako Watanabe

Production Manager: Tatsuo Hagiwara

Assistant Director: Hideo Ōe

Sound Department

Hirobumi Satō .... sound effects editor

Toshio Tanaka .... sound

Other crew

Helen Milsted Eisenman .... subtitles editor (1985 re-release)

René Fuentes-Chao .... presenter (English subtitled version)

John R. Tilley .... presenter (English subtitled version)