Review: TOKYO DRIFTER (1966)
December 8th 2008 21:48
Tokyo Drifter - 6/10
Seijun Suzuki's film about an ex-yakuza trying his best to move on from his old gangster life aims high, but does not quite connect.
Tetsuya Hondo (Tetsuya Watari) had always been a reliable soldier to his yakuza boss Mr. Kurata (Ryuji Kita), even going so far as to follow his old mentor out of the mob life and into legitimate business. However, when a rival gang lead by a ruthless boss (Hideaki Esumi) and an even more violent gangster (Tamio Kawaji) do their best to stop Kurata and Tetsu from going legitimate, Tetsu finds himself thrown back into a world he thought he had escaped from and must, eventually, go the higher road and leave Tokyo all together, to save the life of his boss, his lover, and himself. But, when the rival gang is not ready to let him go so easily, he is thrust back into a world of violence he only wishes he could escape.
I've never really been a big fan of Japanese period pieces from the heyday of film making (40s, 50s, 60s, etc). However, I did see it and tried my best to look past the things that usually make me turn off the movie and flip on an old favorite. With that said, I did not like the film very much. While I can definitely understand why it is such a highly regarded film, due to it's powerful storyline and great cinematography, it was just too much for me. The editing was too choppy for me. Now, I understand that this type of editing is what made some of the greatest movies so great in the 20th century, and I know that this movie followed the type of editing style that was popular in the 60's, but it just did not work for me. Also, some of scenes were just too overdone for me to enjoy (like the Japanese women in the Western bar lining the men up and knocking them out with clubs, or bottles, etc).
It was a very well made movie despite the things that I did not like (and I can see why it was so well received), however, for me, it just did not do it for me.
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