Kanto Wanderer - Production

Production

The Nikkatsu Company assigned Kanto Wanderer to contract director Seijun Suzuki. It was his first ninkyo eiga, or chivalry film. It was also a programme picture, a quickly-made, low budget film, designed to be screened after Shohei Imamura's The Insect Woman. Kanto Wanderer was based on a serial written by Taiko Hirabayashi published in the Asahi Shinbun. Hiroshi Noguchi, Suzuki's mentor, had previously adapted the story as Song from the Underworld (1956). Suzuki was apprehensive about remaking a film by Noguchi but his producer Kenzō Asada assured him that it was better a former assistant directed it.

Suzuki accepted the assignment on September 24, 1963, and began location scouting the same day. The studio also assigned matinée idol Akira Kobayashi and Chieko Matsubara to the lead roles. Suzuki and his collaborators had more sway with the remaining parts. They suggested many actress for the role of Tatsuko Iwata, such as Yoshie Mizutani and Yukiji Asaoka, but all were turned down. Suzuki argued frequently with the studio on the subject. The studio suggested Minako Osanai, a famous television star, but Suzuki warned them against it as he felt her small face would not carry over to the large screen format. Two days before filming was scheduled to begin, art director Takeo Kimura suggested Hiroko Itō to Suzuki and she was selected.

Shooting began on October 5, on location in Shinagawa. Kobayashi appeared on set wearing what Suzuki later described as Brezhnevian artificial eyebrows. A dismayed Asada told Suzuki, "Tell Akira to cut that out." Suzuki suggested they leave them so as not to immediately antagonize Kobayashi and the eyebrows remained. Since the film was to be shown immediately following the main feature, and Suzuki felt that all Nikkatsu films followed the same formula (the lead falls in love, kills the bad guy and gets the girl), he familiarized himself with The Insect Woman's actors, director and his approach and then approached similar scenes from a different angle in Kanto Wanderer. Filming was completed on November 10. The music was completed on the 12th and the dubbing was done over the 13th and 14th.