Branded to Kill

Ratings & Reviews

NCMBianchi

Totally crazy movie: the score, the use of light, the type of narration and the editing all follow - without a mistake - a really weird story where death, fascination for it and yet the wish for survival mix together. A good example of how noir can be - and has been many times - a perfect mean for allegory.

Eric Eidelstein

I'm all for a boiling rice fetish!

thay

my dream is to die

Naoya Kugimiya

4.5

Ashley Spendlove

Oozes cool and boldly asserts a strong other-worldly aesthetic, both quintessentially 60s but also ahead of its time. Any incoherence is compensated for by some nifty set pieces and a final third that enters existential territory as the rivals play cat-and-mouse within their strict warrior code - as if Pinter's The Dumb Waiter had been transplanted to Tokyo and given a big shot of adrenalin and an X-rating.

miles

I'll rewatch this sometime in the future, first viewing didn't live up to the hype.

smndvdcl

Jarmusch and Tarantino avidly paid homage to Suzuki and his satire of yakuza fiction with it's B-movie kitsch, problematic representations of women, incomprehensible plots and an overwhelming sense of anarchy. On one level, it seems like a Russ Meyer film, yet on another, akin to Dr. Strangelove. What a maverick.

shoyle

Cinematography is amazing, a very inventive and stylish pulp thriller with a great soundtrack, but gender politics/representations are sketchy (in all senses of the word).

patrick chen

A wonderful film that sucks you into its world the moment the plot begins. It is clear to see how much it has influenced many directors. NO. 1 indeed

Nicolas Pierce

Bonkers, in the best possible way.

Eva Bosch

Total crap

Christofi Cotonou

Sniffing rice, having sex and blowing s**t up. Who needs James Bond, eh?

MrSpaceman

Kitsch, kitsch, kitsch! And such 60s style! Also, some strange Japanese fetishes abound. However, great cinematography and excellent harpsichord jazz soundtrack. I could imagine Murakami, the novelist, being inspired by this calibre of flick. I'd like to see more!

Superfrog

Photographically stunning, seems to have influenced a thousand film (Ghost Dog and the sink anyone?), but feels more like a collection of stunts than a self sufficient feature.

Kevin Matthews

A bit of a crime classic from Seijun Suzuki, this strange and wonderful movie has style to burn, and benefits from Jo Shishido in the lead role. Three words can sum this up: Dangerous, cool, and, sexy.

Anita G

Amazing cinematography. Although I didn't understand why the main character had storage pouches in his cheeks .. ? Fashion or disguise ?

Dr. Q

great

SiIencio

Iconic and influential for many future directors who will borrow its coolness and wildness however as a wholesome piece on its own it's certainly an acquired taste. Suzuki's lack of focus, that cartoonist feel, the improvisation that often surfaces in many sequences, the championing of an effective slick style over its rudimentary noir skeleton, all these are issues that should not compare to greatness.

Tja

Gave me a headache. Obsessive and driven, but not really engaging. People as robots. Mubi live streaming also took against it with a jiggering interference not apparent when I switched to a colour film.

James Mackin

I kept wondering if anyone was ever gonna address the rice fetish.

Nachtreich

Che cazzo ho visto. ☆☆ e mezzo.

Christopher M. Jones

Suzuki usually leaves me cold but this is unquestionably a masterpiece. It's like a Pusha T video as scripted by Jim Thompson and envisaged by Carl Theodor Dreyer

Aardsy

A singularly bizarre (and awesome) movie.

Bram Vroonland

Branded to Kill is an immaculate film which once more shows that cinematic geniuses can easily overcome the confinements of a budget. The narrative, although at times fragmentary, is incredibly well set up visually. The visuals themselves are lush and the finale is amazeballs. Furthermore it almost seems like a theoretical piece about cinema itself (see the torture scene among others).