Seijun Suzuki, now regarded as one of the finest directors of his generation, first made his name as a part of the Japenese New Wave, crafting films with Hachiro Guryu (the name given to a team of writers) like Branded to Kill that would have him hounded out of the Japenese film industry for years. Now regarded as one of the masterpieces of his career, it is now available in beautiful HD regards of our very good friends at Arrow Video.

When the No# 3 Hitman in all of Japan, Goro Hanada (Jo Shishido), takes a job from a woman he has fallen in love with (Annu Mari) and accidentally kills the wrong person, he is forced to take on The Organisation and their army of assassins and in the process prove that he is worthy of being No# 1.

It wears it”s Film Noir influence with pride, pulling from a similar monochrome nihilism but coming with it”s own particular and twisted Eastern sense of humour. Suzuki manages to strike up an amazing balance, both dealing with the themes of destructive desire, reckless ambition, and identity, all the while maintaining a fantastic gangster plot and creating some of my favourite action scenes of the era (just wait until you see the shoot out at the breakwater!).

Naozumi Yamamoto”s incredible jazz score pounds the scenes casino full of cool, 60″s style and it”s bold, bizarre editing adds a real madness to proceedings. When the two come together, the film begins descending into an outrageous and surreal fever dream of sexuality and violence. It”s important to remember that this was at a time when Japan was beginning it”s own culture revolution along with the rest of the world.

In both parts impressive and insane, silly and solemn, entertaining and infuriating. What a great film always is before anything else; an experience, and one of a kind at that.

Bonus

Interviews with Suzuki and Shishido that gives some insight into how they feel about the film in hindisght as well as a trailer, but the real reason to buy is the two-for-the-price-of-one inclusion of Trapped in Lust, the Pink Film re-imaging of Branded to Kill

While fun, it”s basically a stripped down version of the original premise to play up the sex, violence and insanity Thankfully, that doesn”t mean that it”s any less interesting a film to watch, especially for it”s cinematography, and The Handsome Mario and Saigo are still terrifying.

Anyway you look at it, these are well worth a look for those with a taste for Japenese cinema looking for examples of the film culture that bred later directors like Takeshi Miike and Takeshi Kitano.

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