Let’s start this story at the end. In April 1968 the 45 year old movie director Seijun Suzuki was fired by Kyusaku Hori, President of Japanese film studio Nikkatsu. This was a period when directors were contractually tied to studios and worked on a movie factory line. In a fiercely competitive marketplace Nikkatsu were struggling financially and drastically required genre action films; economic bankers which could lead them out of their precarious position. Oblivious to previous warnings over his outragous back catalogue and always one to be contrary, Suzuki delivered them Branded to Kill.
Suzuki’s crime’s which resulted in his P45? Too numerous to mention. ‘Nikkatsu Action’ had basically become a trademark during the late 50’s and early 60’s, a brand all of its own and specific to the studio. An alluring cocktail of Hollywood glamour, film noir and western, Nikkatsu Action was devoid of the reality of mid-century Japan. This made it the ideal tool of escapism for a disenfranchised youth. Often described as borderless due to the international stylings and settings, Nikkatsu Action was in fact clearly enclosed by well defined genre guidelines. When the studio asked Suzuki to direct a hit man action flick they probably expected something closer to the 1977 Sonny Chiba classic Golgo 13. What they were delivered was a baffling, incoherent mess of surreal imagery and distorted narrative; an absurd genre defying bag of nonsense. A masterpiece.