'youth of the beast' was the flick that got me excited about suzuki... i had heard good things about 'branded to kill,' but found it too disconnected and careless to sustain my interest. but when i finally saw 'youth,' and 'tokyo drifter'... man. criterion released 'youth' on vhs years back, which is how i saw it, but the dvd just became available in the last few weeks.

they also just released 'fighting elegy,' which is a satire of japan's obsession with militarism and not a genre flick like the yakuza movies, but is still worth picking up. it's just psychotic, but thankfully has a coherent narrative style.