It could be the biggest crime film fans around the world that Suzuki Seijun was blacklisted for so many years (though he a musical coming out with Ziyi Zhang in it, and I thought he was dead, but loved Pistol Opera which he made not long ago). They always talk about Branded to Kill being his best, well this is right up there, and again we have Joe Shishido as the snarling bad ass lead. This film is fantastic, and moves from the opening frame to the end, kind of a gangster version of Yojimbo, of a drifter pitting two gangs against each other, but with a great story and perfect twists. And of course it is an excellent criterion that has video interviews of Suzuki and Shishido made in 2001

Review contains Spoilers….

The film starts in black and white with a double suicide of a woman and her married boyfriend who turns out to be a cop, and a red flower is seen in the scene. Then Joji “Jo” Mizuno (Jo Shishido) rolls into town causing as much trouble for the chief gang, and looking for work, which he promptly gets, and makes friend with their gun man as he is a gun man too, and quickly makes a name for himself, but then he goes to the rival gang and starts playing double agent. Also he gets in with one of the bosses mistresses, who wants him to kill the 6th mistress of the boss who runs the whores with the boss’s gay brother who will carve up anyone who mentions that his mother was a whore, and used to service black men. He is known for cutting up women’s faces like a venetian blind. It turns out Jo is an ex-cop who was framed by the mob and put into prison for embezzlement and violence, and the cop who died was his partner who took care of Jo’s wife, and was a good man, and he suspects he was killed. Jo turns the 2 gangs against each other, and tried to enlist the help of his ex-partners wife, but it turns out she is the sixth mistress who killed her husband and the whore that was with him, all for the boss who was a sadist. And Jo gets her to talk about the whore mother, so she gets cut up as Jo plays the tapes that he recorded of the confessions to the police, leaving 2 destroyed gangs in his wake. The bosses place literally being blown up by a suicide run by the other boss.

What an awesome movie. Joe Shishido is awesome. I need to see the other film he did with Suzuki (I have 3 of them now). The sets are awesome, and everything is put together perfectly including the action and the characters. This film is all out yakuza fun, and can’t be beat!