Branded to Kill

Ratings & Reviews

Arandhitio Ballagi

nasiiiiiiii, lapar

ejonline

The second Suzuki film I saw. At this point I started to think that his auteurish flourishes were fun but ultimately kind of distracting. Sometimes incoherence is a stand against a bourgeois fascination with linearity, logic and order, but sometimes, maybe - just maybe - it is a sign of incompetence. I am a fan of Jo Shishido and this is cool looking, but there are better existential yakuza dramas (Cf. Pale Flower)

Christopher McQuain

****1/2

Nick Schwab

Branded to Kill takes the ultra-cool final shootout of Tokyo Drifter, and makes the similar action more prevalent, and the pace more energetic. It also now has a few more unique character details (Shishido's sexual arousal when smelling boiling rice, his relationships with women, the humorous standoff scenes with #1.) Motivations are lost at times in its set-piece squall, but its verve and style are done grandly.

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!

Thayná de Paula

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, rough 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.