Tôkyô nagaremono (1966)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Director:

Seijun Suzuki

Writer:

Kôhan Kawauchi (writer)

Release Date:

10 April 1966 (Japan)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Drama

Plot:

Tetsu has joined his yakuza boss in going straight, but when a rival gang threatens to bring them back into the gang wars...

Plot Keywords:

Drifter | Yakuza | Gangster | Bar Fight | 1960s

Cast

Tetsuya Watari	...	Tetsuya 'Phoenix Tetsu' Hondo
Chieko Matsubara	...	Chiharu
Hideaki Nitani	...	Kenji Aizawa
Ryuji Kita	...	Kurata
Tsuyoshi Yoshida	...	Keiichi
Hideaki Esumi	...	Otsuka
Tamio Kawaji	...	Tatsuzo, The Viper
Eiji Go	...	Tanaka
Tochiko Hamakawa	...	Mutsuko
Isao Tamagawa	...	Umetani
Michio Hino	...	Yoshii
Shuntaro Tamamura	...	Koyanagi
Hiroshi Midorigawa
Hiroshi Chô	...	Kumamoto
Kosuke Hisamatsu
Shinzo Shibata	...	Otoyoshi
Yuzo Kiura	...	Fujimura
Yu Izumi	...	Detective Sakai
Ikuo Nikaido
Masaaki Honmoku
Shiro Toba
Wataru Kobayashi
Mitsuru Sawa
Iwae Arai
Yoko Yokota
Hiroshi Takao
Kiyoshi Oba
Tessen Nakahira
Ken Mizoguchi
Tadayuki Kitakami
Masatoshi Takase

Directed by
Seijun Suzuki

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Kôhan Kawauchi		writer

Produced by
Tetsuro Nakagawa	....	producer

Original Music by
Hajime Kaburagi

Cinematography by
Shigeyoshi Mine

Film Editing by
Shinya Inoue

Production Design by
Takeo Kimura

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Masami Kuzuu	....	assistant director

Sound Department
Tadonobu Akino	....	sound

Camera and Electrical Department
Hideo Kumagai	....	gaffer

Production Companies

• Nikkatsu

Distributors

• Nikkatsu (1966) (Japan) (theatrical)
• Criterion Collection, The (1999) (USA) (DVD)
• Criterion Collection, The (2004) (USA) (DVD)
• Total Film Home Entertainment (2006) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• Yume Pictures (2007) (UK) (DVD)
• Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF) (1995) (Germany) (TV)

Also Known As:

The Man from Tokyo
Tokyo Drifter (USA)

Runtime:

89 min | USA:82 min | Germany:82 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Black and White | Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Germany:12 | Sweden:15 | UK:12 | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Akasaka, Minato, Japan

Company:

Nikkatsu

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)

Sweet

Having previously seen Branded to Kill on its Criterion release, and having found it to be utterly brilliant, I had to buy the Criterion release of Tokyo Drifter. It is not as good as Branded to Kill (heck, nothing can be), but it is still great. The color composition is particularly masterful. So what if the story is difficult to follow? It is still entertaining. I really wish more of Sezuki Seijun's films would be released by Criterion, or anyone else, for that matter. He's an extraordinarily interesting and gifted filmmaker who is very underappreciated in cinema history.