Seijun Suzuki’s Branded to Kill is not your typical gangster film, nor is it your typical anything. This 1967 film is not just a crime thriller – though it does feature the yakuza and a variety of hitmen – it’s more a fever dream where the boundaries between reality and fantasy blur, creating a cinematic…
Tag: Yakuza
Tokyo Drifter (1966) – Review
Planning a career change can be tough, but it’s even tougher when your previous career was that of a yakuza hitman. With Tokyo Drifter, director Seijun Suzuki tackles this fun topic with a vibrant explosion of style and chaos, in a cinematic fever dream that eschews conventional narrative in favour of visual panache.
The Punisher (1989) – Review
Don Pendleton’s pulp action book series “The Executioner,” told the story of a Vietnam veteran and his wars against organized crime after his family was brutally killed by the Mafia, sound familiar? Yeah, it was this book series that Marvel comic book writer Gerry Conway took for inspiration when he created one of the most…
Why Don’t You Play in Hell? (2013) – Review
There is no shortage of films about the movie industry, from Bill Wilder’s film noir Sunset Blvd to Robert Altman’s satirical The Player to silly films like Hal Needham’s Hooper, we as viewers are fascinated by that celluloid world. Now, in Shion Sono’s Why Don’t You Play in Hell? we get the bloodiest look at…