Pale Flower is a 1964 Japanese film noir directed by Masahiro Shinoda. The film is about Muraki a Yakuza hitman just released from prison. At an illegal gambling parlor, he finds himself drawn to a mysterious young woman named Saeko. Though Saeko loses large sums of money, she asks Muraki to find games with larger and larger stakes. The two become involved in an intense mutually destructive relationship. Film critic Roger Ebert gave Pale Flower four stars and placed it on his list of Great Movies.