Tokyo Drifter
Directed by Seijun Suzuki
Written by Kouhan Kawauchi
Starring Tetsuya Watari, Chieko Matsubara, Tamio Kawaji

Seijun Suzuki’s Tokyo Drifter is a colourful, energetic blast of 1960’s Japanese pop culture wrapped in a complicated, satirical take on the Yakuza gangster film. Packed with wild imagery and some amazing art design, Suzuki’s unusual brand of crime film is more Warhol than Kurosawa and a definite treat for genre fans.

The plot of Tokyo Drifter seems to be intentionally over-complicated, but let me try my best to summarize. Our hero, Tetsu Hondo, and his boss Kurata have given up the gangster life and gone straight. They’re ex-Yakuza with an eye on opening a night club and making legit money. When a rival gang boss, Otsuka, fails to recruit Tetsu into his own club, he sends his men to rub him out. Kurata, a father figure to Tetsu, suggests he leaves town and become a drifter. What Tetsu doesn’t realize is there are ulterior motives to this request. A hitman called “Viper” Tatsuzo tracks Testu and he and his goons attempt to take him out, but Tetsu fights back. To go reveal any more of the plot may end up spoiling things, so I’ll leave it at that. Let’s just say that multiple Yakuza gangsters are out for Tetsu and there’s a good amount of pulp drama mixed in with the action sequences. As I’d mentioned above, it seems as though Suzuki is playing with the tropes of Yakuza films and having fun with the multiple factions and the idea of loyalty and honour within the groups. Ultimately, money seems to win out over traditional codes, and Tetsu is caught in the middle thanks to his stubborn ideals and his allegiance to Kurata.

The film is quite obviously inspired by westerns of the time, right down to some of the Morricone-esque music cues. Tetsu is basically a Japanese gunslinger in a powder blue suit, whistling his own theme song throughout his travels. In fact, there are flat out musical sequences in the film in which he sings a song called Tokyo Drifter, featuring the lyrics “I’m a drifter, the man from Tokyo.” The villain, Otsaku, is introduced with an extreme close up of his sunglasses, seemingly referencing Sergio Leone’s tendency to focus on shots of his characters eyes. To add further to the western motif, there’s an extended brawl sequence that takes place in a colourful bar appropriately named “Western Saloon”. Beyond this, there are tons of general pop culture references scattered throughout as we see characters reading comic books, playing arcade games, and dancing in jazz clubs. In fact, the entire aesthetic of the film indulges in pop art, with surreal splashes of colour and some unusual set design that resembles something out of a comic book. The most obvious comparison is a toned down, more realistic version of the 1966 Batman television series. There’s even a James Bond moment in which Tetsu is seen against a black backdrop shooting his gun (a wonderful image that was used for the cover art of the blu ray). I absolutely loved the choice of adding a red flash to the gunshots, giving a cartoony sense of levity to the sometimes graphic violence. Yes, it’s the wild aesthetics and overall self-awareness that really make Tokyo Drifter stand out as something special.

Now here is a movie that really deserved the high def treatment. Tokyo Drifter looks AMAZING on blu ray. Obviously the colours benefit the most from this transfer, giving the sense that you’re watching a fresh print as it may have looked in the year of the film’s release. As usual, a natural sheen of film grain really captures the analog celluloid aesthetic with no signs of any sort of digital manipulation. It could be one of my favourite Criterion transfers. As for bonus features, the disc is a little light with only two interviews and a trailer. The first interview was filmed in 2011 for this edition and features new interviews with director Seijun Suzuki and assistant director Masami Kuzuu. The second is an interview with Suzuki from 1997. It is worth noting that the previous DVD editions of both Tokyo Drifter and Branded to Kill were NOT anamorphic widescreen, which means they would be letterboxes and pillarboxed on widescreen televisions. This alone is a good reason for those with widescreen TV’s to upgrade their old discs. In short, Tokyo Drifter is definitely a buy. — Jay C.

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