Red Peony Gambler: Gambler’s Obligation (1969)

What invites us to qualify Suzuki’s narrative as a classic is not simply his continuation of Yamashita’s visual adoration of Junko Fuji, but his effective transformation of the Ninkyo thread into an exploration of the transgressive nature of desire as such.

Man Who Causes A Storm (1957)

Inoue’s rags-to-riches narrative might not escape the territory of predictability, but he puts enough thematical meat on the table so that the spectator, in full knowlegde of how the narrative will unfold, still comes away fully satisfied.