Black Lizard is a 1968 Japanese detective film directed by Kinji Fukasaku

Kinji Fukasaku

was a Japanese film actor, screenwriter, and best known as a celebrated and innovative filmmaker. He was born in Mito, Ibaraki, Japan, and died in Tokyo, from prostate cancer...

. The film is based on a 1934 novel by Edogawa Rampo

Edogawa Rampo

, better known by the pseudonym , was a Japanese author and critic who played a major role in the development of Japanese mystery fiction. Many of his novels involve the detective hero Kogorō Akechi, who in later books was the leader of a group of boy detectives known as the .Rampo was an admirer...

 and its theatrical adaptation by Yukio Mishima

Yukio Mishima

was the pen name of , a Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor and film director, also remembered for his ritual suicide by seppuku after a failed coup d'état...

, who, at the time, was the lover of Akihiro Maruyama

Akihiro Miwa

, is a Japanese singer, actor, drag queen, director, composer and author from Nagasaki in Nagasaki Prefecture. His real name is . He writes most of his own music and has written over 20 books. An open homosexual, he is also a drag queen who often dyes his shoulder-length hair bright yellow.-Early...

, the actor who plays the notorious female criminal "Black Lizard" in drag.

The film's protagonist is Kogoro Akechi

Kogoro Akechi

Kogoro Akechi is a fictional character and the creation of Japanese mystery writer Edogawa Rampo.He first appeared in the story "The D Slope Murder case" in 1925 and continued to appear in stories for a quarter of a century...

, a brilliant detective patterned on Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...

 who appears in several stories by Edogawa Rampo and is a fixture in Japanese popular culture

Japanese popular culture

Japanese popular culture not only reflects the attitudes and concerns of the present but also provides a link to the past. Japanese cinema, cuisine, television programs, manga, and music all developed from older artistic and literary traditions, and many of their themes and styles of presentation...

.

The film currently has no official DVD release, and copies of the film are extremely difficult to find, but it has gained a cult following and is highly regarded by devotees of "kitsch

Kitsch

Kitsch is a form of art that is considered an inferior, tasteless copy of an extant style of art or a worthless imitation of art of recognized value. The concept is associated with the deliberate use of elements that may be thought of as cultural icons while making cheap mass-produced objects that...

" and "campy

Camp (style)

Camp is an aesthetic sensibility that regards something as appealing because of its taste and ironic value. The concept is closely related to kitsch, and things with camp appeal may also be described as being "cheesy"...

" 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/mt/e/catalog/j0017cate.html.

Cast

• Akihiro Maruyama
  Akihiro Miwa
  , is a Japanese singer, actor, drag queen, director, composer and author from Nagasaki in Nagasaki Prefecture. His real name is . He writes most of his own music and has written over 20 books. An open homosexual, he is also a drag queen who often dyes his shoulder-length hair bright yellow.-Early...
  
   as “Black Lizard,” disguised as Mrs. Midorikawa
• Isao Kimura
  Isao Kimura
  , also known as Ko Kimura, was a Japanese actor. He appeared in several films directed by Akira Kurosawa. The first was Stray Dog as Yusa the criminal...
  
   as Detective Kogorō Akechi
• Kikko Matsuoka
  Kikko Matsuoka
  Kikko Matsuoka is a Japanese actress. She married Hayato Tani in 1981, and the couple have appeared in many Japanese television programs and films together. Among these join performances are the hit gameshow Takeshi's Castle, where Matsuoka guest starred in a single episode to encourage her...
  
   as Sanae Iwase
• Junya Usami as Shobei Iwase
• Yūsuke Kawazu as Junichi Amamiya
• Kō Nishimura
  Kô Nishimura
  was a Japanese actor who appeared in supporting roles in such films as Akira Kurosawa's The Bad Sleep Well and Yojimbo, Kihachi Okamoto's Sword of Doom, Yoshitaro Nomura's Zero Focus, and Kon Ichikawa's The Burmese Harp .-Film:* The Burmese Harp *Sun in the Last Days of the Shogunate（1957）*The...
  
   as Private Detective Keiji Matoba
• Toshiko Kobayashi as Hina
• Sonosuke Oda as Harada
• Kinji Hattori as Toyama
• Kōichi Satō
  Koichi Sato
  is a Japanese actor.He is the son of veteran Japanese actor Rentarō Mikuni.-Films:*The Last Chushingura *Nobody to watch over me * Shonen Merikensack * The Magic Hour * Smile Seiya no Kiseki...
  
   as Ohkawa
• Jun Katō as Sakai
• Ryūji Funakoshi as Kōzu
• Mitsuko Takara as Show Dancer
• Tetsurō Tamba
  Tetsuro Tamba
  was a Japanese actor.-Biography:Tamba is perhaps best known by Western audiences for his role as Tiger Tanaka in the 1967 James Bond film You Only Live Twice . By then, he had among other roles appeared in two films by director Masaki Kobayashi: Harakiri and Kwaidan...
  
   as Kuroki
• Yukio Mishima
  Yukio Mishima
  was the pen name of , a Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor and film director, also remembered for his ritual suicide by seppuku after a failed coup d'état...
  
  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)