Branded to Kill

REVIEW
This bizarre gangster thriller was renegade director Suzuki's is a remarkable, audacious piece of filmmaking. It tells the story of Hanada (Shishido), the underworld's "Number Three Killer," a dead shot with either pistol or rifle who also becomes sexually aroused when he sniffs boiled rice. After he shoots Number Two Killer, he is given four extremely difficult assassinations to save face. He carries out three of them (all imaginatively staged), but the fourth is bungled, so he is marked for death. Eventually, Number One Killer comes out of the shadows and begins a long, tense showdown with Hanada. Highly original, the film thumbs its nose at both linear story telling and Japanese filmmaking (especially the yakuza genre). However, Suzuki's compositions are brilliant, using the black-and-white widescreen frame in new, inventive ways. While not for everyone -- its story is very confusing and impressionistic -- the film is influential enough to be considered a classic and unbelievable enough to be a wild piece of entertainment.