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Jim's Real Detroit Column 3/30/99

Mention Japanese cinema to most Americans and you'll likely be told that they love (or hate) those giant monster movies, or maybe that they have seen a samurai film by the recently deceased master Akira Kurosawa. But as great as Kurosawa was, he's only one of many Japanese directors whose work should be seen to examine their influences on American cinema, and how American culture has affected them. Two not-to-be missed films are renegade B-movie visionary Seijun Suzuki's Tokyo Drifter (1966) and Branded to Kill (1967). Working under a studio contract, Suzuki refused to make the formula features that were ordered up and instead infused his films with excesses of bizarrely choreographed violence, sight gags, camera tricks, hallucinatory colors, and extreme cool. Add to this his nearly incoherent narrative style and you've got entertainment chaos at its best. None of this was appreciated by the Nikkatsu Studio (Japan's oldest studio), and Branded to Kill actually got him fired, and subsequently blackballed for ten years.

Tokyo Drifter is a Yakuza epic that follows reformed killer Tetsu (Watari Tetsuya) as he tries to remain loyal to his boss and to himself, while a rival unreformed gangster tries to steal his boss' building. Tetsu does his best to go straight, but if he is pushed more than twice, he can't stop himself from throwing a few punches, doing a lot of shooting, or breaking into song. Going to battle with a rival gang, Tetsu decides that maybe violence does solve all, and director Suzuki stages a final shootout with choreography that would look great in most MGM musicals except for all that shooting and falling bodies.

In Branded to Kill, "No. 3 Killer" wants to be number one, but finds himself being stalked by the latter. No. 3 is a wacky assassin who is sexually aroused by the smell of cooked rice, and who revels in finding unusual ways to dispatch his victims. Filmed in black and white, one would think that Branded would be a little tamer, but it's not the case; Suzuki delivers another visual masterpiece, filled with brutality, humor, and even a little animation. Thirteen years after being fired, Sazuki made Zigeunerweisen (1980), which was voted best Japanese film of the decade and gave him the worldwide reputation that he deserved.

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