Tokyo Drifter - Criterion Collection

Rating:
Summary: another unusual gangster film
Review: This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film.

This film follows a retired killer named Tetsu who continues to receive threats from people and is asked to help take out a rival gang.

This film is shot in full color and has some interesting tricks done with that. There are parts where the color changes and 'differentials' of color from one side of the screen to the next. It is very difficult to describe but you know what they say. "a picture is worth a thousand words" I would suggest you see it for yourself if you are interested.

The film also has an excellent theme song which reminded me of the songs by Kyu Sakamoto, best known for his song "Ue O Muite Arouko" and known outside of Japan as "Sukiyaki."

There is also a 20 minute interview with director Seijun Suzuki on the DVD as a special feature.

Rating:
Summary: COLOURED SONGS
Review: TOKYO DRIFTER has the charm of the arty movies of the sixties and, sometimes, is terribly modern in the Quarantinesque sense of the term. Overall, it offers a good cocktail ! Furthermore, it has the charm inherent to japanese movies : the characters speak during ten seconds and you have to deal with a subtitle containing four words. At least, it develops your imagination...

TOKYO DRIFTER's prolog is shot in a black & white saturated to the maximum ; faces are black, the water and the sky white and you hardly will find a grey tone. The contrast with the colours appearing after the initial generic is explosive. Welcome to Tokyo by night with his bars and night-clubs whose shadows are pink and orange. It's BLOW UP in Japan and let's admit that it's very refreshing.

Some action scenes, the final duel for instance, are very " spaghetti westerns " like and other scenes could have been shot by a Quentin Tarantino, a Samuel Raimi or a Robert Rodriguez. Imagine a duel happening on a railroad while a train is approaching ! Great and intense moment!

Sound and audio OK for me. An interesting interview with director Suzuki as bonus feature.

A DVD for the curious ones.

Rating:
Summary: Crazy
Review: Tokyo Drifter is stylish like Out of Sight, has a storyline less plausable than that of a John Woo movie. The friendships and dialogue are corny, there are color skews between BW and bursting color, and a theme song sung through out the movie by the protagonist. So, what do you get when the movie's over? The movie is a stylish, fun, and I have a feeling, symbolical with it's plot line and characters. It tries things that you wish you would see in a decent spy movie, but of course none ever come out anymore. But, Tokyo Drifter, though it isn't dubbed over in English, is a fantastic movie, and a second watch let's you go mostly without the subtitles.

Rating:
Summary: Don't read the review by [e-mail] below
Review: Unfortunately, the review by [e-mail] at the bottom of this page is very inaccurate. The reviewer wrote, "Seijun Suzuki was one of the most popular directors in Japan in the '60's." No, he was never really popular in the 1960s when he made his initial foray into film making and made films including Tokyo Drifter. His name was established only after he had been fired from Nikkatsu. His reputation grew when his films were shown at classic film theaters. Then the reviewer wrote, "Suzuki was probably Japan's first director to directly challenge the status quo, and the cold bravado that charactrized the rigid image of Japanese masculinity, and the violence and military nature of the Japanese society. For this he was fired from Studio, only to be rehired because of the success of his films." HE WAS NEVER REHIRED. And pretty much everything else in the review is very questionable. Just don't read it.

Rating:
Summary: God damn, it is different!
Review: When I saw the old auto going into the flames accompanied by theme song, I was caught. Not that the storyline is great like in Kurosawa movies - it is just standard gangster movie, but the power of video is amazing.

Many people will not like the movie. But it is really worth to try.

Rating:
Summary: Incomprehensible
Review: While visually interesting, Tokyo Drifter lacks a cohesive story or any character development. It seems as if the editor removed the most important scenes. At one point in the movie the main character Tetsu has two hitmen in the back of the car he's driving and inexplicably escapes unscathed. The final outcome of the car scene is missing. This is just one of the many examples of poor editing. The subtitles on this DVD are equally disjointed and incomprehensible (laughably so, at times).

This movie is for students of Japanese film only.

[DW]