Drifter's Affair

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Shōgorō Nishimura directs. Yonezō Maeda behind the camera. Hiroki Tamaki scores. Masanori Tsujii cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in Japan. Dialogue in Japanese.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

• 1Tight 70-minute runtime — shorter than most television pilots.
• 254 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
• 3Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.
• 4Directed by Shōgorō Nishimura, shot by Yonezō Maeda. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
• 5Original score by Hiroki Tamaki. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
• 6Editor Masanori Tsujii shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
• 7Kazuko Shirakawa and Yuri Yamashina and Nobutaka Masutomi carry the top of the cast.
• 8IMDB entry: tt0286044 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
• 9Only 2 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.

The technical file

Cinematography

Yonezō Maeda

Original score

Hiroki Tamaki

Editing

Masanori Tsujii

Runtime

70 min · 1h 10m

Status

Released

Original language

JA

IMDB

Drifter's Affair (1972) ↗

Also by

Shōgorō Nishimura

• 
  Apartment Wife: Agony Afternoon

  1972 · ★ 10.0
• 
  The Climax

  1973 · ★ 10.0
• 
  Apartment Wife: Afternoon Seduction

  1974 · ★ 10.0
• 
  Red Light Tobita Brothel

  1975 · ★ 10.0
• 
  Secret Book: Peeled Egg

  1975 · ★ 10.0
• 
  Ran no nikutai

  1984 · ★ 10.0

Production companies

Who made it

• 

  Nikkatsu Corporation

  JP

Key crew

• Executive ProducerAkira Miura
• Still PhotographerYuji Meguro
• Assistant DirectorKazuhiko Hasegawa
• Lighting DirectorHideo Kumagai
• Sound RecordistKoshiro Jinbo
• Art DirectionHeihachiro Watanabe
• EditorMasanori Tsujii

Themes & keywords

What it's about, really

• softcore
• pink film

Release history · US

When it landed

• Premiere1972-02-19

Also known as

International titles

• さすらいの情事JP
• Sasurai no jojiJP
• Drifter's AffairUS
• 流浪者的情事CN