Suzuki is one of the most versatile directors of the Noberu Bagu, which is compliment enough, even if he is not necessarily the best. He shifted from noir tributes, to exploitation, to anti-war humanist testaments, to treating themes of prostitution in several ways, to cinematic pulp fiction, to flat-out experimentation. Branded to Kill is the bastard son of the peculiarities of the Japanese New Wave: a crime-oriented plot with magically ranked hitmen including one third-ranked hitman that has an unbelievably cool and equally ridiculous fetish for sniffing boiling rice, a wife that is obsessed with sex and behaves like mentally demented, a Ju-On-like femme-fatale lover that surrounds herself by dead birds and butterflies with eagerness for sex and that water…

After completely enjoying the 1967 Takashi Nomura film, A Colt Is My Passport, a wonderful continuation of the rich history of other countries adopting the American Western, and making the genre their own, a LB friend recommended another starring chipmunk cheeked Jô Shishido to my film partner in crime wife.

I walked into this one without any knowledge of its stature or of the history of the director, other than the affectation that it earned a Criterion release. Since watching, I haven’t done my usual perusal of LB friend’s ratings. I have read the Criterion essays included with the disk before writing this.

When the film was over, I was ready to give it 2 stars. Upon gestation, and before…

Rest in Peace Master Seijun Suzuki.

Hanada is Ranked Third Hitman. He meets an ex hitman Kasuga who asks him if he can assist him on a job. Hanada agrees. As the job seem easy, they both take a man to his destination point but are stopped by an ambush. While Hanada kills one by one, Kasuga cowardly tries to hide but finally dies.

After the ambush Hanada meets a mysterious women Misako who just wants to die. The next day Hanada gets an contract to kill three men which he does successfully, but fails when to kill his target which was given by Misako. And soon he Branded to Kill and game for survival, obsessive love and warring down…

Your training is inadequate.
-Number One

Director Seijun Suzuki and star Jô Shishido's sixth and final film together would be the one that pushed the studio, Nikkatsu, to fire the director for making a film they claimed to be incomprehensible and unprofitable. A lawsuit would ensue resulting in Suzuki becoming a bigger legend then ever before while also being blacklisted by all major studios. It would be a decade before he was able to direct another studio film while Branded to Kill would go on to become one of his biggest international cult hits with both audiences and critics.

Shishido is the #3 ranked hitman in the Japanese underworld; Goro Hanada. On the job there is none cooler then Hanada,…

Original Title: 殺しの烙印
Year of Release: 1967
Genres: Action; Crime; Drama
Director: Seijun Suzuki
Writers: Chûsei Sone, Atsushi Yamatoya, Takeo Kimura; Hachiro Guryu (based on the novel)
Main Cast: Hachiro Guryu, Kôji Nanbara, Isao Tamagawa, Annu Mari, Mariko Ogawa, Hiroshi Minami

87/100 of A Decade Called 1960s: 2018-19 Edition

19/100 of The Great Action Project: 2019 Edition

Talk about a film ahead of its time. Suzuki's Branded to Kill is a truly impressive action film from Japan, one that feels like a weird blend between a Melville crime film and an exploitation film. It's a unique film for sure, from its weirdly paced editing and unusual story that is at one disturbing and at another funny. It very much is…