In Masahiro Shinoda’s Kawaita hana (US: Pale Flower), the cool, self-possessed Muraki (Ryô Ikebe), just released from prison, re-connects with his yakuza associates and returns to his cold, gray, illegal gambling haunts where he encounters the young, wealthy Saeko (Mariko Kaga) gambling with “flower cards” mostly to alleviate her boredom. When she approaches Muraki later to inquire about even higher stakes gambling venues, he investigates the options and takes her to a new den, after which he becomes her mentor for navigating the gambling underworld. (While their mutual attraction is never quite consummated, they come close when hiding from a raid as lovers in bed, a fantastic scene that gains its power from restraint). Saeko remains frustratingly mysterious throughout the film, but that seems to be Shinoda’s point: contrast her character with the clingy, yapping Shiko, Muraki’s old girlfriend who divulges her every emotion and even stalks Muraki at night. Shinoda is a brilliant choreographer of visual and aural elements, and many scenes are mini masterpieces in their own right: an assassination to the music of an opera aria, a knife attack on Muraki’s walk home at night, the transcendent dream sequence.