Branded to Kill
Directed by Seijun Suzuki
Written by Hachiro Guru
Starring: Joe Shishido, Koji Nanbara, Isao Tamagawa

Like ‘Tokyo Drifter’, Seijun Suzuki’s ‘Branded to Kill’ is a strange, quirky, moody gangster picture that goes out of its way to poke holes in the tropes of this sub-genre while also indulging in some sixties pop cinema. While the film’s characters and plot are sometimes tough to penetrate, Suzuki’s sense of style and his gleeful mocking of genre conventions is the real draw here.

The plot of ‘Branded to Kill’ is rooted in simple genre beats yet still comes across as characteristically over-complicated. To simplify; hitman Goro Handa and his wife Mami catch a taxi after arriving in Tokyo. The driver, Kasuga, is a former hitman and asks Goro to help him out on a job in order to break back into the business. Their mission is simple; escort a client and make sure he arrives in Nagano safely. Immediately things go wrong when the two find a dead body in the back seat of the designated pick up vehicle. From here, they pick up their target and are ambushed by gunmen, resulting in the death of Kasuga. After his car breaks down, Goro is picked up by Misako, a femme fatale with a death wish. Later, Goro is hired once again to assassinate four men, all of which are played out ridiculously. In one instance, he takes out an ocularist by sticking the barrel of his gun into a disassembled drain pipe and shooting the man in the eye via the drain in a sink. In another instance, he escapes a hit on a giant floating advertising balloon. Suzuki seems to go out of his way to turn these moments of violence into cartoonish, hilariously ridiculous gags that mock the tropes of the gangster genre.

Like the French New Wave’s avant-garde take on genre cinema, Suzuki’s gangster films are the result of a fresh and exciting era of filmmaking. I think it’s fair to say that even this many years removed, Branded to Kill still plays as fresh and innovative. Suzuki’s unconventional style and indulgence in pop culture iconography has clearly influenced some of our greatest modern genre filmmakers; most obviously, Quentin Tarantino. However, while watching Branded to Kill, I couldn’t help but be immediately reminded of Jim Jarmusch’s equally odd take on gangster films and his obsession with Japanese culture (apparently he lists it as his favourite hitman film). I also love Goro’s obsession with the smell of boiled rice; an absolutely ridiculous character quirk that reminds us that our protagonists vices aren’t always as cool as women and martini’s. It reminds me of Mark Ruffalo’s animal cracker eating Inspector David Toschi from David Fincher’s Zodiac. I also really loved the climax of the film which finds the two rival characters facing off inside of a boxing ring within an empty arena. It’s a bold and comically literal image that works as a great cathartic moment for both the characters and the audience. After dealing with the complexities and politics of organized crime, there’s nothing like five minutes in the ring to sort out your troubles.

‘Branded to Kill’ looks pretty great on blu ray. Unlike Tokyo Drifter’s insane colour palette, this film is shot in black and white and the HD transfer is quite nice. There is one complaint I have that might be minimal and nit picky, but has popped up on DVD transfers I’ve seen in the past. It seems as though at some point in the film, there’s a dropped pixel in the upper-middle area of the screen. I don’t know if this has something to do with the digital device they’re using to capture the film, but I’ve seen this before. I’m fairly sure it doesn’t remain throughout the entire runtime, but I did notice it about halfway through and it was a little bit annoying. Still, I don’t think this is a deal breaker. I just find it funny that I’ve never seen any mention of these types of flaws in reviews previously. Aside from that, the transfer is great. As for the extras, they pretty much mirror that of the ‘Tokyo Drifter’ disc, including a new video interview with director Seijun Suzuki and assistant director Masami Kuzuu. You also get an interview with Suzuki from 1997, a new interview with actor Joe Shishido, and a trailer. Most importantly, this release represents an anamorphic upgrade from the original Criterion DVD, which was not formatted to fit widescreen televisions. — Jay C.

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