Highly stylized and blending the cool of a Steve McQueen film from the same period with the badass toughness of Clint Eastwood in one of his lone gunslinger roles, this is an entertaining action film. The avant garde sets and direction also highlight the rebelliousness of director Seijun Suzuki against more traditional yakuza forms, and in the lead character, we might see a little of Suzuki. I liked the daring shown in style and substance, with that saturated black and white opening leading to bold colors, and the film's examination of honor and loyalty. There are cool cars and shootouts, a fantastic song (which had me humming it even after it seemed overused in the film), and comedic moments. My favorite scene was when the main character pulls open a pair of sliding doors to run after some other guys, then plunges face first down a level because he misses a walkway, which the others then calmly stroll across as they look at him from above.
The film was shot and edited in just 28 days, and unfortunately some of that shows. More than once the editing chops so quickly from an action scene to subsequent events that some of the power of those scenes is lost, in addition to disorienting the viewer. Some of the scenes just didn't do anything for me anyway, e.g. the nightclub brawl scene, was I thought was a mess. And, I think it took a little too long to get to the 'drifter' state, where the main character (Tetsuya Watari) had to leave Tokyo following the tussling of gang bosses over a property owned by his boss who quit the life of organized crime. If you get a little lost in the exact mechanics of the property deal early on, don't worry too much, the drift of what's happened is clear enough. Just keep your Tetsu straight from your Tatsu, that's all. It's a fun, campy, interesting film, but I think it was undermined a little by the plot.
The film was shot and edited in just 28 days, and unfortunately some of that shows. More than once the editing chops so quickly from an action scene to subsequent events that some of the power of those scenes is lost, in addition to disorienting the viewer. Some of the scenes just didn't do anything for me anyway, e.g. the nightclub brawl scene, was I thought was a mess. And, I think it took a little too long to get to the 'drifter' state, where the main character (Tetsuya Watari) had to leave Tokyo following the tussling of gang bosses over a property owned by his boss who quit the life of organized crime. If you get a little lost in the exact mechanics of the property deal early on, don't worry too much, the drift of what's happened is clear enough. Just keep your Tetsu straight from your Tatsu, that's all. It's a fun, campy, interesting film, but I think it was undermined a little by the plot.