There is a certain pace to Japanese cinema that doesn't seem to have changed much over the last 70 years. From Ozu's reflections on social interaction to Takeshi Kitano's ultra violent Yazuza movies, there is a deliberate development of plot that is designed to show the thoughtfulness of the characters and their quiet reflection on the world around them. This informs the plot of this movie also. At an hour and three quarters the film could easily be shaved of twenty minutes of its running time in order to compete with its contemporaries. As a film noir, the casting, plot and cinematography are nearly flawless. The film begins with a policeman stopping and searching a car on the way into the city during a large search for an escaped gangster. He recognises an old school friend and they arrange to meet up. From this innocuous beginning, the investigation leads to wounding, murder and betrayal as the cop wrestles with his conscience and duty to his profession. Treading some of the same ground as Carol Reed's masterpiece The Third Man, this is an intriguing example of late Asian silent film-making (a part of the world that adopted sound much later) and is worth watching for the great photography and evocative locations - a world where neon lights and automobiles contrast with the fragile homes and traditional dress of older Japanese culture. Perhaps with a carefully chosen Jazz accompaniment the film would unfold better, but when seen with an unimaginative soundtrack, the pace is soporific rather than engaging. However as an historical document for anyone interested in the development of Japanese cinema, it is unmissible.
5 Reviews
A Cop is a Cop
boblipton19 December 2017
Isamu Kosuji is a disciplined, smart police officer, with strong ties to the community, but when Eiji Nakano, his best buddy from high school re-enters his life just as his mentor is shot, it takes him a while to put the circumstances together and build a case.
Tomu Uchida's silent police drama covers most of the bases; it's a personal story and one of dedication to the force and a forensic drama, all rolled into one, with a bang-up finish. Because this was a silent picture -- they would still be in production for two or three more years -- Uchida could use a moving camera far more casually than some one supervising a sound rig possibly could, and this movie is replete with tracking shots and pans -- in fact, the final confrontation is shot with a camera moving just below the speed of swish cuts, for a tremendously exciting, dizzying feel.
Once again, I am confronted with the often-stated dictate that Japanese cinema doesn't travel outside Japan, and the reality. Switch out a few of the police officers for some of Warner Brothers' Irish Mafia, and have Minor Watson read the Policeman's Creed, instead of, presumably, some benshi, and Lloyd Bacon could have directed this, with Cagney and Bogart in the leads.
Tomu Uchida's silent police drama covers most of the bases; it's a personal story and one of dedication to the force and a forensic drama, all rolled into one, with a bang-up finish. Because this was a silent picture -- they would still be in production for two or three more years -- Uchida could use a moving camera far more casually than some one supervising a sound rig possibly could, and this movie is replete with tracking shots and pans -- in fact, the final confrontation is shot with a camera moving just below the speed of swish cuts, for a tremendously exciting, dizzying feel.
Once again, I am confronted with the often-stated dictate that Japanese cinema doesn't travel outside Japan, and the reality. Switch out a few of the police officers for some of Warner Brothers' Irish Mafia, and have Minor Watson read the Policeman's Creed, instead of, presumably, some benshi, and Lloyd Bacon could have directed this, with Cagney and Bogart in the leads.
Friend or foe?
brogmiller15 December 2021
Despite the first Japanese full-length talkie being released in 1930, as late as 1938 a third of that nation's films were still silent. This resulted in our being gifted some real gems, not least this proto-noir from director Tomu Uchida, sadly the only complete silent film of his to have survived.
The influence of early Hollywood gangster movies is evident here but it contains elements that make it years ahead of its time. As one critic has observed, it is only derivative in retrospect.
The realistic settings, the rapid cutting, the roving camerawork of Aisaka Soichi and his stunning use of light and dark, give the film a sense of immediacy which is missing from Ozu's polished 'Dragnet Girl' from the same year.
The core of this film is the relationship beween Isamu Kosugi as Itami the policeman and Eiji Nakano as Tetsuo the crook. Itami is faced with a tortuous moral dilemma and his extensive close-ups serve to show us how much his character struggles to choose between the bonds of friendship and his duty to bring a criminal to justice.
The one jarring note comes towards the end when the inter-titles spell out the 'Policeman's Oath' which not only states the obvious but gives the film an unnecessarily moralistic tone.
The storming of the crooks' hideout and the ensuing chase are thrillingly executed and the poignancy of the final scene between Itami and Tetsuo lingers long in the memory.
In short, a must for all true cinephiles.
The influence of early Hollywood gangster movies is evident here but it contains elements that make it years ahead of its time. As one critic has observed, it is only derivative in retrospect.
The realistic settings, the rapid cutting, the roving camerawork of Aisaka Soichi and his stunning use of light and dark, give the film a sense of immediacy which is missing from Ozu's polished 'Dragnet Girl' from the same year.
The core of this film is the relationship beween Isamu Kosugi as Itami the policeman and Eiji Nakano as Tetsuo the crook. Itami is faced with a tortuous moral dilemma and his extensive close-ups serve to show us how much his character struggles to choose between the bonds of friendship and his duty to bring a criminal to justice.
The one jarring note comes towards the end when the inter-titles spell out the 'Policeman's Oath' which not only states the obvious but gives the film an unnecessarily moralistic tone.
The storming of the crooks' hideout and the ensuing chase are thrillingly executed and the poignancy of the final scene between Itami and Tetsuo lingers long in the memory.
In short, a must for all true cinephiles.
cop buddy vs commie buddy
jonathan-5778 December 2007
This is a late silent film by Ichida, whose recent retrospective at Cinematheque Ontario seemed to herald another lost master, although I have testimony to the contrary. This is the only one I saw, his sole surviving silent. It tells of the repeatedly crossing paths of two old pals - one the titular policeman, the other a mastermind of Japan's communist underworld. There's beautiful compositions and memorable scenes and images, mixed in among the failed stuff - one brief, solitary scene suddenly gets all Underground with cityscape nervously juxtaposed with chain link fence, then it's back to the linear stuff like nothing happened. What I will remember, though, is the way the action-packed climax is interlaced with title cards to the effect of, "The only way to be a good cop is to understand that you were given your mission by GOD!" Someone should have given a co-writer credit to the Minister of Information.
How Uchida discovered the film noir before the US
kekseksa29 July 2017
It is difficult to find any precedent for this film in Japanese cinema although Ozu, to whom Uchida was close, produced his Dragnet Girl in the same year but what is even more fascinating is that is difficult to find any convincing precedent anywhere else either. This intriguing film is not much like. It is often referred to as a film noir and that description would seem to suit it very well but this is 1933 and the US film noir barely exists as yet although there are plenty of precursor in the silent films of Lon Chaney and the emergent gangster film. There had even been the first - not very noir - version of Hammett's The Maltese Falcon in 1931 but none of these bear much resemblance to Uchida's film. There had been important precursors too in European cinema Ozu - Lang's M or Jean Renoir's La Chienne being perhaps the most important. There were also some interesting precedents to be found in the German thriller (Hitchcockian avant l'heure) and even already in Hitchcock's own films. But again Uchida's film does not altogether resemble these either.
It does, it is true, bring certain film noir to mind - another reviewer mentions The Third Man but it made me think too of White Heat and Pick-up on Main Street but all these are much later films after the liaison between European thriller and US crime film that occurs principally with the arrival of a large number of German directors and technicians in the US in the wake of Hitler's rise to power.
So how is it that Uchida has anticipated the film noir before it really existed? Ozu's Dragnet Girl by comparison is very much a copy of US film but Uchida's is not and curiously the mélange of western styles (largely I think influenced by German film at this time) and Japanese realism produces an effect remarkably similar to the film noir that would develop from a mix of European and US styles ten years later.
This effect is compounded by the anti-Communist which does not emerge in US film until the forties but which Uchida uses somewhat manipulatively rather as Sam Fuller would in the US. Neither Fuller nor Uchida believed in the Communist conspiracy against the state that they portray (Uchida was so far to the left that he would exile himself to Communist China in 1939) but simply use it as a kind of McGuffin to turn the wheels of the plot.
It is almost as though Ozu and Uchida had made a bet in 1933 as to who could produce the most interesting "cop film" simply as an exercise in style. Uchida's most famous film of the decade, Earth, was, like Ozu's other films, quite different in style (and also serves to separate the two film-makers since Uchida' portrays the life of the rural poor while Ozu increasingly preferred to concentrate on the urban middle class). If there was a bet, I hope Ozu paid up because Uchida wins the competition hands down.
It does, it is true, bring certain film noir to mind - another reviewer mentions The Third Man but it made me think too of White Heat and Pick-up on Main Street but all these are much later films after the liaison between European thriller and US crime film that occurs principally with the arrival of a large number of German directors and technicians in the US in the wake of Hitler's rise to power.
So how is it that Uchida has anticipated the film noir before it really existed? Ozu's Dragnet Girl by comparison is very much a copy of US film but Uchida's is not and curiously the mélange of western styles (largely I think influenced by German film at this time) and Japanese realism produces an effect remarkably similar to the film noir that would develop from a mix of European and US styles ten years later.
This effect is compounded by the anti-Communist which does not emerge in US film until the forties but which Uchida uses somewhat manipulatively rather as Sam Fuller would in the US. Neither Fuller nor Uchida believed in the Communist conspiracy against the state that they portray (Uchida was so far to the left that he would exile himself to Communist China in 1939) but simply use it as a kind of McGuffin to turn the wheels of the plot.
It is almost as though Ozu and Uchida had made a bet in 1933 as to who could produce the most interesting "cop film" simply as an exercise in style. Uchida's most famous film of the decade, Earth, was, like Ozu's other films, quite different in style (and also serves to separate the two film-makers since Uchida' portrays the life of the rural poor while Ozu increasingly preferred to concentrate on the urban middle class). If there was a bet, I hope Ozu paid up because Uchida wins the competition hands down.
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