It was bound
to happen sooner or later, that I would check out one of these Criterion films
and get a wacky one. Well it was the
third one in, so sooner it is. “Branded
to Kill” directed by Seijun Suzuki is a tripped out film about an assassin that
gets targeted when he botches a job.
That’s basically the story since all the exposition was cut out of the
film in very obvious ways, it’s very chopped up and while there is some cool
imagery, over all the film is just plain weird.
It’s a
B-movie with action that borders on clever to down-right goofy, the way Hanada
(Joe Shishido) takes out an optometrist through a drain-pipe is straight out of
a comic book. Or if you’ve seen it,
1999’s “Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai”.
There also is a big thing about the ranking of hitmen, ‘who’s Number 1?’
is the big mystery. Which leads to a
confrontation between Hanada and Number 1 which starts as a game of wits and
moments later seen in the Wachowski’s/Donner 1995 film “Assassins”, but then
leads to scenes straight from “Three’s Company”. There is weird visuals and equally weird sex
stuff, like Hanada using steaming rice as an aphrodisiac before sex, and then
they try to keep within the rating system but end up making the sex creepier.
Still
despite its many, many, drawbacks, “Branded to Kill” has a visual style that on
its own is worth a look at least once. Well maybe just
a passing glance. Better yet, check out
the trailer, you can see all you need to there.
--Robert L.
Castillo
No comments:
Post a Comment