A Certain Killer

Kazuo Mori’s stylish adaptation of a hard-boiled crime novel, The Night Before, by Shinji Fujiwara, stars Raizo Ichikawa, with the exquisite camerawork of Kazuo Miyagawa and a script by Yasuzo Masumura. A Certain Killer is a dark, nihilistic thriller in the Le Samouraï vein, with Ichikawa as a former kamikaze, now a taciturn restaurant chef, who is gradually revealed to be moonlighting as a hitman for two yakuza clans. As a picture of the generation whose values and ideals were corrupted during the war, this is an updating of the Ichikawa hero (he was often cast in historical roles) to modern antihero. With little dialogue, sparing use of color, and an interesting penchant for objective longshot, A Certain Killer is an important rediscovery by one of Japanese cinema’s “kings of the Bs,” Kazuo Mori (1911-1989), who inspired Nagisa Oshima with the inherent rebellion of his daring constructions. Oshima said, “I was shocked to discover that the rage and hatred the world inspired in me at the time could be expressed so beautifully and powerfully by the cinema.” —BAM