Mon 4 Aug 2014
A Japanese Crime Film Review: CRUEL GUN STORY (1964).
Posted by Steve under Crime Films , Reviews[4] Comments
CRUEL GUN STORY. Nikkatsu, Japan, 1964. Originally released as Kenjû zankoku monogatari. Jô Shishido, Chieko Matsubara, Tamio Kawaji, Yûji Odaka, Minako Katsuki, Hiroshi Nihon’yanagi. Director: Takumi Furukawa.
I’m not going to fake it. This is the first Japanese crime film I’ve seen in a good long while, and there’s no way I can possibly place it in any kind of context where it belongs. I don’t know the actors nor the director, nor what the intentions were of the people who were responsible for the making of the film — only the results, as I saw them.
But on the basis of this first toe-in-the-water attempt on my part, I’m enthusiastic enough to try another, and perhaps even soon. I feel as though I’m on the verge of entering a very big field here, and I hope it doesn’t go to my head.
Just released from prison, a small-time gangster named Togawa (Jô Shishido) discovers that he has a benefactor who negotiated his release, and expensively, and that he is expected to reciprocate. (It wasn’t that he was a gangster that sent him to prison, it was for the murder of the man who ran over his sister with a truck, causing her to lose both legs.)
The job he’s supposed to do? Nothing more than to hold up an armored car, along with a easily supplied crew of assistants. The prize: millions of dollars yen being transported from a race track to a nearby bank.
Togawa agrees. His sister needs an operation, he believes. And as they always do in heist films like this, things go wrong. And boy howdy, do they ever go wrong. The body count is as high as any movie I’ve seen in recent months, including lots and lots of American-made westerns.
Although filmed in black-and-white, and often dazzlingly so, please do not think of this as a film noir. It’s only a heist film populated by lots of guns and gangsters, flawed by a plan which could never have worked in the first place, and done in by plain old greed, pure and simple.
August 4th, 2014 at 12:19 pm
Have you seen “The Bad Sleep Well”–directed by Alira Kurisowa and starring Toshiro Mifune? Mid-century (1960) Japanese noir with an incredibly downbeat ending. Well worth a viewing if you haven’t seen it.
August 4th, 2014 at 12:31 pm
No, but I’ve already added it to a list of Japanese “To Be Seen” movies I’ve started to put together. Thanks for the suggestion!
August 4th, 2014 at 3:31 pm
Some of the Japanese movies from this period show an obvious debt to the US film industry. They borrowed many crime and film noir elements and it’s interesting to note their slant on such movies. This film I remember as being influenced by Kubrick’s THE KILLING.
It’s part of a great 5 film dvd box set from Eclipse/Criterion called NAKKATSU NOIR. I can also recommend the films of director Seijun Suzuki as being excellent and of great interest to lovers of crime films.
August 4th, 2014 at 5:02 pm
That’s the set that Jon has and that we started watching over the weekend. CRUEL GUN STORY was our first pick out of the box.