POEM

“Realistic, humanistic, and profoundly imaginative.”
— BranoVsky, LETTERBOXD

Akio Jissôji created a rich and diverse body of work during his five decades in Japan's film and television industries. For some, he is best-known for his science-fiction: the 1960s TV series ULTRAMAN and 1988's box-office success TOKYO: THE LAST MEGALOPOLIS. For others, it is his 1990s adaptations of horror and mystery novelist Edogawa Rampo, such as WATCHER IN THE ATTIC and MURDER ON D STREET. And then there are his New Wave films for the Art Theatre Guild. The final entry in the trilogy, POEM, returns to black and white and is centered on the austere existence of a young houseboy who becomes helplessly embroiled in the schemes of two brothers. Written by Toshirô Ishidô (screenwriter of Nagisa Ôshima's THE SUN'S BURIAL and Shôhei Imamura's BLACK RAIN), who also penned THIS TRANSIENT LIFE and MANDARA, POEM continues the trilogy's exploration of faith in a post-industrial world.