Japan's Seijun Suzuki to Get Posthumous Busan Festival Honor

The cult director who influenced Quentin Tarantino, John Woo and Wong Kar-wai died in February.

Busan International Film Festival will honor late Japanese director Seijun Suzuki with its Asian Filmmaker of the Year award at the event in October, organizers said Thursday.

Suzuki churned out dozens of B-movies, many of them about yakuza gangsters, in the late 1950s and 1960s, infusing them with his own brand of quirky cinematic flair and comedy. He was eventually fired by studio Nikkatsu for pushing the boundaries too far on his 1968 yakuza film Branded to Kill, which was later hailed as a classic.

The Japanese auteur has been cited as a major influence by various directors, including Quentin Tarantino, Wong Kar-wai, Bong Joon-ho and John Woo. He died in February this year at 93.

The award will be collected by Suzuki's assistant director and screenwriter Yutaka Okada at the BIFF opening ceremony on Oct. 12. The festival will hold screenings of seven of Suzuki's films, including Branded to Kill.