Branded to Kill (1967)

Seijun Suzuki made 42 films for Nikkatsu Studio, 1967's "Branded to Kill" being his last. It was his last because he was fired (while still under contract) for making a film that made no sense and no money. Suzuki sued the studio for breach of contract and as a result was blacklisted by the Japanese film industry. Undeterred, he worked in television for ten years before returning to the big screen in 1977. But time loves an artist and his art and in recent years "Branded to Kill" has been championed by film makers, film students and critics and is now considered a classic.

Hanada is a yakuza hit man with ambition. He is the No. 3 ranked assassin and wants to be No.1. But things aren't going right. He botches an assignment to provide protection for a boss then blows a hit when a butterfly lands on his rifle sight as he is ready to pull the trigger. The mob then puts out a hit on Hanada and he is on the run. But he has more problems than that. His sexy wife (who has more gratuitous nude scenes that I thought possible in a Japanese film of this era) is sleeping with Hanada's boss and Hanada is stalked by the mysterious No.1.

A straightforward plot is completely lost in a totally confusing narrative that has events out of chronological order, changes in space and time, and shifts in tempo that leave the viewer thinking that they are either watching the worst edited film of all time or they have somehow slipped into a David Lynch parallel universe. Suzuki's film grammar is that there is no grammar. You can do anything you want as long as it keeps the film interesting – and entertaining. The result is a fascinating, bizarre and mystifying film that is not only highly original but dazzling to look at. The black and white Cinemascope looks as good as anything I've ever seen and the camera direction is inspired.

But the look of the film is not disconnected from the story. The expressionist style – amazing lighting effects, surreal widescreen images and the confusing edits – all create a nightmare film language that mirrors the nightmare that Hananda is experiencing within the story. There is a femme fatale who has a dead bird hanging from her cars rear view mirror (which, actually, would be better than one of those ghastly air fresheners), lives in an apartment full of dead butterflies strung up into a lacy embroidery and has an attraction for water that leaves her glistening wet in most scenes. BTK also has an absurdist comic feel to it: James Bond loves his vodka martini's, Hanada loves his boiled rice. And in a scene that has since been copied, Hanada shoots someone by firing a bullet into a basement drainpipe, the bullet traveling up through the pipe and out of a sink on the second floor and into the eye of an optometrist. It all seems to work as it plays with the usual yakuza themes: loyalty and honor, an existential loner hit man, double crosses and hit men assassinating other hit men.

This film is not for those who prefer a straightforward narrative or a film with a logic that can be discerned by simply watching it again. But others will find this fascinating film something they will want to watch again...and again.

Fmovies: Man, why are those late 60's / early 70's criminal movies so fantastically good? I guess it must have something to do with those old saturated film stocks. If only Kodachrome would muster the courage to bring back what brought us the those classics: Dirty Harry, Bullitt, The Getaway etc.

Or then again, maybe it was just the period in which these movies were made. The hippie era did, as it would appears produced a surprisingly good number of film titles. Comparatively, Branded to Kill reminds one distinctively in style to John Boorman's film of the same year, POINT BLANK, both in choice of film stock and composition of photography, but aside from this the films are completely different. Branded to Kill tells the story of a yakuza hitman (with a penchant for fast woman and inhaling "rice steam") who seeks the desirable title of #1 gunman. But of course, it's not going to be that easy...

Seijun Suzuki has a lot of nerve as a director, and I mean that as complimentary as it can sound. He pushes buttons without being too exploitive- he knows the genre by the back of his hand, has likely seen his share of 40s film noir and gangster pictures, and knows at least a little of the French new-wave (or rather seems to carry over a similar spirit). So he knows also, even more crucially, how to turn the genre on its head while keeping a sense of poetry to the proceedings. It's hard to pull off a sense of the poetic in a crime film, but Suzuki's camera techniques are to the quality that he can get his actors at the same level of a challenge of sorts. Branded to Kill is about deconstructing the myths of the hit-man, the qualities of emotion and subservience, of duty and sacrifice, the coldness, and the suppressed longing for death that is encompassing. And damn if it isn't a helluva lot of fun as pulp entertainment, a tale told with some strange characters and even stranger twists of fate, and loaded to the gills with sex and violence.

That last part, I might add, is important in seeing Branded to Kill in context forty years ago. Who else but Suzuki, and maybe Arthur Penn, would go for this level of bizarre violence and uncompromising sex at the time, and at the same time not turn it into some kind of B-movie spectacle? Come to think of it, the premise and essential plot is pure B-movie: a hired killer, Hanada, aka #3 (Jo Shishido, very bad-ass even as he goes crazy), is very good at his job, so good that he's able to kill #2 in a big shoot-out scene in the first twenty minutes of the film, as he escorts another gangster around. Coming back from that mission, he gets a ride from mysterious Misako (Anne Mari), who gives him a mission to kill someone for her. But it goes bad, he's kicked out of the syndicate, and now will be killed by his old bosses. This problem is broken up by two things: 1, #3 is so good, even under total stress from his girlfriend Mami trying to kill him ("We're beasts", she says to him crying her eyes out in supposed guilt), he kills all of those who are supposed to kill him; and 2, he meets killer #1- the "Phantom" killer, who will soon kill him...'soon' being the dreaded word.

Well, as 'pure' as it can be under the circumstances anyway. It's essentially the story of an assassin who has the tables turned on him, and has to step up to the challenge- will he be #1? Can there ever be any kind of #1 in the world of hired killers? The last half hour is mostly only #3 and #1 in the apartment, as they both reach for their guns at the same time and neither uses them. It becomes a game of psychological torture (not to mention nerves), which reaches a fever pitch by the time the climax at the gymnasium comes around. But around this genre story we get Suzuki's style as a director, which is startling, provocative, tawdry, and surreal, whatever one could think to call it. Over the opening credits we see a tiny light go over the names, and the first shot is a random airplane image. There's plenty of indelible images from the film- killer #2 running out of the building on fire; the uproarious, delirious moths and lines and other figures that #3 sees around him at one point; the simple sight of our hero smelling his beloved rice, his first love; Misako in close-up staring at the killer in the rain- chillingly performed by Anne Mari like she's just got out of electro-shock- telling him her hatred of men and her lack of fear for death.<

Branded to Kill fmovies. Branded to Kill is by far Suzuki's best film. It is my personal favorite crime film. Joe Shishido in his role as Hanada Goro, with his dark black sunglasses and Mauser M712 is one of the coolest characters ever created. The movie has everything, violence, shootouts, car chases, sex, and much much more. The film would likely have been shot in color, however Seijun Suzuki was prohibited from shooting in color due his wild use of colors in past films. The film is still a work of art, and looks beautiful in black and white. The best way I can describe this film is maybe a cross between Alfred Hitchcock and Sergio Leone. An excellent crime thriller not to be missed.

While the British were playing the psychedelic numbers game with "The Prisoner," 1967 brought the Japanese Seijun Suzuki's "Branded to Kill." This story of a hit-man reduced to a number leads a cold killer through a surreal journey to his humanity. As the movie reveals emotions to the main character, he is struggling with his past, and is pitted against the mysterious #1.

This movie, outside of being visually stunning, is exceptional in how it explores emotions versus purpose. It beautifully juxtaposes the drive for a career, its duty and its devastation, against the desire for love and the weakness of human nature. "Branded to Kill" meshes the beauty of the film noir shadows with a surrealism laid on the foundations of Luis Bunuel. This hardboiled tail meshes dark shots with cut outs and overlays, as if a the Yakuza were shot by Man Ray.

Thankfully most of Suzuki's films have been released on video. Now he may achieve the respect and notoriety that he has earned.

Wow, I thought the Japanese turned out some weird stuff nowadays. That lame crap has nothing on this wacky thing, which requires about 57 viewings to make any kind of narrative sense.

Jo Shishido (who has cheek implants (!!) that make him look like a chipmunk) is the third best killer in Japan. Apparently, all assassins in Japan do, other than kill people, is try to better themselves in the rankings. It's much like Pokemon, in a way. Jo strives to be number one, but, not only does he have to get past a bunch of backstabbers, he has to find the #1 Phantom, the high man on the totem. And when he does, it's rip roarin' nonsense time!

It's hard to tell if this is a work of genius or of pure insanity. There's no real narrative; more like a bunch of scenes held together by the fact they're all in the same movie. Some of the stuff is so nutty, it's hard not to call it brilliant, like when Jo finally does meet Phantom and they have a sit-down, Phantom pisses his pants rather than get up and take his eyes off Jo. Or the hit that gets foiled by a butterfly. Or Jo's girlfriend's obsession with dead bugs, which lay in piles on the floor. Or the shocking amount of sex and violence in a movie made in 1967. It's really no surprise that the director had his contract summarily terminated when the studio watched this: it is the weirdest movie to come out of Japan in 1967. Or maybe ever. Be prepared to watch more than once.