Black Lizard (film)

Infobox Film
name = Black Lizard


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director = Kinji Fukasaku
producer = Akira Oda
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starring =
music = Isao Tomita
cinematography = Hiroshi Dowaki
editing = Keiichi Uraoka
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released = 1968
runtime = 86 minutes
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imdb_id = 0063203

"Black Lizard" (黒蜥蝪 "Kurotokage") is a 1968 Japanese detective film directed by Kinji Fukasaku. 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 Region 1 DVD release, and copies of the film can be difficult to find, but it has gained a cult following and is highly regarded by devotees of "kitch" 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" (aka "Inju") [http://www.kurodahan.com/e/catalog/titles/j0017.html] .

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
*Yūsuke 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)