Strange, sumptuous and visually stunning, An Actor’s Revenge [Yukinojô henge] is a wildly melodramatic tale of a kabuki female impersonator who exacts a long-delayed revenge on the men who drove his parents to suicide. It is played out against a colourful backdrop of comic rivalries between thieves in the Tokyo underworld.

Kazuo Hasegawa stars in the dual role of both the actor and a thief, in a film which celebrated his 300th screen appearance. A heady cocktail of swooning romanticism and highly stylised action, with an outstanding soundtrack that ranges from traditional Japanese music to lush Hollywood strings and cocktail jazz, An Actor’s Revenge is a cinematic tour de force.

On 26 March the BFI will bring Kon Ichikawa’s 1963 An Actor's Revenge to Blu-ray for the first time in the UK, releasing it in a Dual Format Edition (also contains a DVD version) at the RRP of £19.99.

Special features:

• New audio commentary by critic, programmer and Japanese film expert Tony Rayns
• 100 Years of Japanese Film (Nagisa Oshima, 1995, 52 mins): the award-winning director of In the Realm of the Senses (1976) explores the first century of Japanese cinema
• Oriental Splendour, Japan Pays Homage, Japan. To Rid Their Souls of Evil, and In Old Japan (1927-1930, 4 mins): four rare archive films documenting Japanese life, from the Topical Budget newsreel
• Fully illustrated booklet with new writing by James Bell, Espen Bale, Virginie Sélavy and Vic Pratt, plus original review by David Wilson and full film credits