Criterion’s latest Eclipse box set offers five deliriously stylized potboilers from postwar Japan.
The isle’s oldest studio, Nikkatsu, countered popular Western imports during the ’50s and ’60s by exploiting the competition’s pulpy traits with its mukokeseki akushun (“borderless action”) films. Fusing hardboiled, Franco-American noir to modes as disparate as the rebel thriller and the Western, this action-oriented set includes titles by icons Seijun Suzuki and Takashi Nomura.
Explore this Japanese netherworld in Chuck Stephens’ liner notes, read TCM’s review, discover more about Seijun Suzuki, and buy
the box set.
Jerry Fujio and Joe Shishido, A Colt Is My Passport
Mie Kitahara, I Am Waiting