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Black Lizard

Original title: Kuro tokage
  • 1968
  • 1h 26m
IMDb RATING
6.9/10
728
YOUR RATING
Yukio Mishima in Black Lizard (1968)
ComedyCrimeFantasyHorrorMysteryRomanceThriller

Japanese sixties comedy featuring a cunning female jewel thief named Black Lizard who tries to kidnap Sanaye, a wealthy jeweler's beautiful daughter as part of a plot to steal the jeweler's ... Read allJapanese sixties comedy featuring a cunning female jewel thief named Black Lizard who tries to kidnap Sanaye, a wealthy jeweler's beautiful daughter as part of a plot to steal the jeweler's expensive "Star of Egypt" diamond. To thwart the planned kidnapping, the jeweler hires Jap... Read allJapanese sixties comedy featuring a cunning female jewel thief named Black Lizard who tries to kidnap Sanaye, a wealthy jeweler's beautiful daughter as part of a plot to steal the jeweler's expensive "Star of Egypt" diamond. To thwart the planned kidnapping, the jeweler hires Japan's number one detective, the brilliant Akechi. This sets off a dual between Black Lizard... Read all

  • Director
    • Kinji Fukasaku
  • Writers
    • Rampo Edogawa
    • Yukio Mishima
    • Masashige Narusawa
  • Stars
    • Akihiro Miwa
    • Isao Kimura
    • Jun Usami
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    6.9/10
    728
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Kinji Fukasaku
    • Writers
      • Rampo Edogawa
      • Yukio Mishima
      • Masashige Narusawa
    • Stars
      • Akihiro Miwa
      • Isao Kimura
      • Jun Usami
    • 13User reviews
    • 16Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • Photos12

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    Top cast42

    Edit
    Akihiro Miwa
    • Black Lizard
    • (as Akihiro Maruyama)
    Isao Kimura
    • Kogoro Akechi
    Jun Usami
    Jun Usami
    • Shobei Iwase
    • (as Junya Usami)
    Toshiko Kobayashi
    • Hina
    Mitsuko Takara
    • Show Dancer
    Tetsuji Hattori
    • Toyama
    Kyôichi Satô
    • Ôkawa
    Ryuji Funakoshi
    • Kizu
    Sônosuke Oda
    • Harada
    Tadayuki Okamoto
    Isamu Shimizu
    Yoshio Naka
    Ryuta Shimizu
    Ryûsuke Kita
    Jun Kajima
    • Sakai
    Ryokutarô Hanai
    Noriyuki Watanabe
    Teruko Higa
    • Director
      • Kinji Fukasaku
    • Writers
      • Rampo Edogawa
      • Yukio Mishima
      • Masashige Narusawa
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews13

    6.9728
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    10

    Featured reviews

    7Musicianmagic

    Excellent Crime Drama with some demerits

    IMDB calls this a comedy. This is not in any way. It's a crime drama.

    A jewel thief kidnaps a jeweler's daughter to obtain one of those one-of-a-kind diamonds you often see in movies. But a detective stands in her way.

    First, the Black Lizard aka the woman jewel thief is played by Akihiro Miwa, a male actor known to crossdress professionally. Strange casting decision. He doesn't pass as a woman at all. Not even as an ugly woman. Unfortunately, that made a movie I'd rate at 9 as more like 6 and a half.

    The acting is a mixed bag. Some are very good. Some terrible. But the direction was brilliant. Especially the little audio & camera tricks. There are a couple of things that are less than believable but some things in this film are a bit cartoonish.

    All in all this is a very good movie. Biggest problem is I never could accept the lead actor as a woman. Very distracting. Yet I still recommend this movie.
    10mrpentax

    So much, much more than a black snake with legs!!!

    The most purely entertaining and amusing film I have seen in a long time. The dialogue between the two antithetically engaged principal characters reflects their exactly opposite ethics, and at the same time, their clearest view of each others thinking. Their well matched genius creates plot, foil, and counter-foil, throughout the film. I almost never watch a film twice. This one, I can't wait to see again.
    6Leofwine_draca

    Lively detective adaptation

    I hadn't seen any of Kinji Fukasaku's work from the 1960s so I thought BLACK LIZARD would be a good place to check it out. It's a lively adaptation of an old detective novel by Edogawa Rampa, although being made in the late '60s it has more than a touch of Bond to it with a super villain, an island lair, and some hotel hijinks. The detective doesn't feature too much here, the brunt of the narrative being given over to the Black Lizard character, a female nightclub owner played by a guy in drag. It's a highly stylised and frankly bizarre little film that labours some of the plotting, but it has some interesting surrealist touches to make it worth a look.
    10MiloMindbender

    A Lost Gem

    This movie from the king of yakuza (gang) films is a big departure from his other films. This movie is the penultimate camp/action film. Anyone who has been taken in with the martial arts films (esp. from Hong Kong) of late, should check this out. It's less focused on the action sequences than it is in developing a verbal tit-for-tat sparring between the villain & the policeman who is pursuing her (w/ whom she is also secretly in love). Having a villain who is a lovelorn but vengeful drama queen is a refreshing break from the usual Asian action fare (1970's - present) & demonstrates that despite better technical skill & more special effects, the art of cinema hasn't necessarily improved because of mastering new technology. I can't remember the last time I've laughed so hard in a movie. Seek this one out.
    7tenshi_ippikiookami

    Good movie adaptation, with a touch of the bizarre

    Rampo Edogawa is one of the most famous writers of Japan, not winner of any Nobel prize (for that we have the award nominee Yukio Mishima's more than weird cameo in this movie, who also adapts the story) but creator of the most famous Japanese detective, Akechi Kogoro, and father of the ero-grotesque genre in the country.

    "Black Lizard" is one in the series of Akechi Kogoro's novels, and the movie has been able to adapt to the screen the spirit of Edogawa's writing. For that, it would be already an interesting movie, as Edogawa had a knack for the grotesque and bizarre, but the movie is interesting for what it is: a mystery, a battle of wits, with a couple of characters who are a lot of fun to be with: Akechi and the Black Lizard.

    The story is pretty basic: the criminal "Black Lizard" wants to kidnap a jeweler's daughter, Sanae, and the jeweler contracts Akechi Kogoro to protect her. Cue the Black Lizard trying to kidnap the girl in different and very original ways, and Akechi trying to stop the criminal from doing so.

    The atmosphere, dark and decadent, the music, the actors way of playing the characters, the 60s Japan, way different from nowadays... Fukusaku does a great job of bringing Edogawa's world to life. The way Akechi and Black Lizard meet and tease each other continuously (this movie is more in the vein of "Columbo", the detective and the criminal meeting throughout the movie and having very entertaining dialogues)... All makes for a very engrossing environment, and a really entertaining time at the movies. As with almost all of Edogawa's characters, the criminal is the most interesting character, and Akihiro Miwa does a great job of making an ambiguous character we care for. Isao Kimura as Akechi just keeps a stoic countenance, impassive and kind of heartless.

    A very good movie, with a very particular atmosphere and scenery.

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    Storyline

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    Did you know

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    • Trivia
      Manga comic writer Masako Watanabe served as costume designer on the film.
    • Connections
      Referenced in Black Rose (1969)
    • Soundtracks
      Two-part Invention No.4 in D Minor BWV.775
      Composed by Johann Sebastian Bach

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • July 1969 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • Japan
    • Language
      • Japanese
    • Also known as
      • El lagarto negro
    • Production company
      • Shochiku
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 1h 26m(86 min)
    • Sound mix
      • Mono
    • Aspect ratio
      • 2.35 : 1

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