Branded to Kill (1967)

After a badly done assignment, a hitman finds himself in conflict with his organisation, and one mysterious and dangerous fellow-hitman in particular.

Director:

Seijun Suzuki

Writers:

Hachiro Guryu (screenplay), Hachiro Guryu

Stars:

Jô Shishido, Mariko Ogawa, Annu Mari

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jô Shishido	...	Gorô Hanada (as Joe Shishido)
Mariko Ogawa	...	Mami Hanada
Annu Mari	...	Misako Nakajô (as Anne Mari)
Kôji Nanbara	...	No. 1
Isao Tamagawa	...	Michihiko Yabuhara
Hiroshi Minami	...	Gihei Kasuga
Hiroshi Chô
Atsushi Yamatoya
Takashi Nomura
Tokuhei Miyahara
Hiroshi Midorikawa
Akira Hisamatsu	...	(as Kôsuke Hisamatsu)
Iwae Arai
Yû Izumi
Kyôji Mizuki

Storyline

The number-three-ranked hit-man, with a fetish for sniffing boiling rice, fumbles his latest job, which puts him into conflict with a mysterious woman whose death wish inspires her to surround herself with dead butterflies and dead birds. Worse danger comes from his own treacherous wife and finally with the number-one-ranked hit-man, known only as a phantom to those who fear his unseen presence.

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Plot Keywords:

surrealism | yakuza | female rear nudity | controversy | murder of a nude woman | 

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Genres:

Action | Crime | Drama | Thriller

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese English

Release Date:

15 June 1967 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Branded to Kill

Company Credits

Production Co:

Nikkatsu

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Seijun Suzuki originally wanted Kiwako Taichi for the female lead but she had taken a part in another film.

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Quotes

Misako Nakajô: [deadpan] I love you.
Gorô Hanada: Don't despise me!

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Connections

Referenced in Nihon eiga no hyaku nen (1995)

User Reviews

Trapped in a dead-end job? No hope for advancement? At least you're not addicted to the smell of rice.

Rice-sniffing, #3 Killer, dead butterflies, snuff films. Where to start? 'Koroshi no rakuin' is a surreal, Kafkaesque, timewarp of a film masquerading as a stylish 60's hit-man movie. Nikkatsu Studios fired Seijun Suzuki over this film's "incomprehensibility."

Suzuki is an auteur of the highest magnitude, nobody has ever used a widescreen, black and white, "Nikkatsu Scope" frame quite like him. The dense and beautifully chaotic images are overwhelming on your first viewing, it's the sort of movie that shows you something new every time you watch it.

Essentially Hanado Goro (Jo Shisido) is the yakuza's #3 Killer, but he desperately wants to be #1. As might be expected, being a hired gun is a stressful life and Hanado takes the edge off with lots of sex and the smell of boiling rice. The sex gets him embroiled in some sort of a plot and he finds himself getting much better acquainted with #1 Killer than he'd ever wanted to be.

Time backs up, swirls around, restarts, slows down. Major themes include, but are not limited to: ambition, lust, rivalry, bureaucracy, addiction, loss of self-control. There's a certain parallel in that with this picture Suzuki derailed his own career as a "salary man" making Nikkatsu yakuza flicks, many of Hanado's thoughts and impulses must have been the director's own.