Branded To Kill

Year: 1967

Grade: B+

Country: Japan

Director: Suzuki

Review

stylized 60s japanese hipster gangster film. probably influenced tarantino, among others. there’s one scene wherein the hired killer dispatches a mark by shooting a bullet through the sink piping as the vic is leaning over the drain…not only is that sweet, it also was duplicated in jarmusch’s “ghost dog: way of the samurai” thirty years later. the director (seijun suzuki) uses an odd editing style that jumps through time in an unconventional manner. if the rest of the film were as off kilter i’d site it as a weakness, but i think in the context of the rest of visual style it works. it takes getting used to since he also moves characters around between cuts, but i think that ultimately it contributes more to the style than it detracts from the logic of the piece. that is, there is enough gained in style to offset whatever brief confusion it may bring. it has elements of james bond (as i’m learning much asian cinema does…see master of the flying guillotine), german expresionism, and 60s euro hipster cool, but combines them in its own way. its influence can be seen in later films like the aforementioned ghost dog, john woo stuff, tarantino stuff and more. an enjoyable movie with plenty of respectable artistic vision, but doesn’t crack the top three of 1967 (see below). looking forward to seeing it a second time.