Japan Synopsis
乾いた花
Muraki, a hardboiled Yakuza gangster, has just been released from prison after serving a sentence for murder. Revisiting his old gambling haunts, he meets Saeko, a striking young upper-class woman who is out seeking thrills, and whose presence adds spice to the staid masculine underworld rituals. Muraki becomes her mentor while simultaneously coping with the shifts of power that have affected the gangs while he was interred. When he notices a rogue, drug-addicted young punk hanging around the gambling dens, he realizes that Saeko's insatiable lust for intense pleasures may be leading her to self-destruction.
Titles With Overlapping Themes
Films and series that share thematic tags with Pale Flower. Number on each card indicates how many keywords overlap.
Other Titles From Ninjin Club
Drama + Crime in Japan
203 Japan titles in our catalog blend the Drama and Crime genres. Below: the top-rated of them (excluding Pale Flower itself).
The 1963–1965 Japan Window
Pale Flower holds position #10 of 61 Japan films in the 1963–1965 window, below highlighted by audience rating.
The 1960s Japan Landscape
Catalog density by release year across the 1960s in Japan, 202 titles in total. Highlighted year (yellow) is when Pale Flower premiered alongside 23 others.
Position in Catalog
Released alongside 23 other Japan films in 1964.
The 190th Japan title from Japan we index (earliest catalogued entry: 1899).
Our Japan catalog contains 4,579 titles in total (2,908 films).
Audience Engagement
91 audience reviews — more than 75% of Japan films in our index.
Review volume (75th percentile) outruns trending popularity (43th) — a durable title with sustained audience attention.
Thematic Fingerprint
Tags on Pale Flower, grouped by how common each theme is across the full Asian catalog. Rare tags are more distinctive signals.
- gambler · 5
- criminal past · 4
- release from prison · 3
- police raid · 2
- gambling house · 2
- severed finger · 2
- racetrack · 1
- japanese new wave · 16
- japanese noir · 8
- ex-con · 7
- yakuza · 93
- gangster · 85
Reception Benchmarks
Ranked #1,388 of 4,579 Japan films indexed here (70th percentile by TMDB audience score).
Rating is +0.5 points above the Japan average of 6.9/10.
Among Japan Drama productions specifically: #604 of 1,933 (top 31%).
Production Details
| Primary Country | Japan |
|---|---|
| Original Language | Japanese |
| Production Companies | Ninjin Club, Shochiku |
| Runtime | 1h 36m |
| Release Date | March 1, 1964 |
| IMDb | tt0056327 |