PRINCESS RACCOON (Japan, 2005)
Directed by: Seijun Suzuki
Starring: Zhang Ziyi, Jo Odagiri, Hiroko Yakushimaru

“…mad, nuts, lysergic, wonderful, kitsch, genius…In other words: I had a blast.”

- Manohla Dargis, the New York Times

Seijun Suzuki, Japan’s grand old wild man of cinema, has turned out incredibly stylized and freakishly beautiful movies since the ‘50s. In 2002 his Pistol Opera played the New York Asian Film Festival, and we are overjoyed to host the New York Premiere of his latest movie, fresh out of Cannes: Princess Raccoon. A musical, starring Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi, this flick tells the story of a young prince who is banished from the palace and falls in love with a tanuki princess. A what princess? A tanuki: a magical Japanese raccoon that can disguise itself as a human. Zhang Ziyi plays the tanuki princess and, needless to say, things get wild and woolly in a song-and-dance kind of way.

Quentin Tarantino once said that “directing is a young man’s game.” Quentin Tarantino is full of hot air. At 82 years old, Seijun Suzuki is making the kind of wild movies that blow away what younger directors are doing.