Stunningly shot in widescreen black and white Seijun Suzuki's "Branded to Kill" starts out like something that could have been directed by Jean- Pierre Melville in the fifties or Godard in the sixties. These Japanese gangsters are somehow closer to Alain Delon and Eddie Constantine than they are to the Yakuza and the jazzy score could have come from the French New Wave.The plot is suitably obscure and the action is at times preposterous but Suzuki is a major stylist and the film's violent imagery is something to behold while Satre could have written the dialogue. Unfortunately this weird and wonderful film virtually disappeared without trace but its cult status is very definitely assured.

Film criticism, as I see it, is not so much to do with coming to understand the films' shortcomings but instead the viewer's own failure to connect with them, and the reasons for rejection. So it is, then, that "Branded to Kill" (1967), while equally as exuberant and berserk in many similarly positive ways as Suzuki's other widely regarded yakuza film, "Tokyo Drifter" (1966), misses the mark with this particular film enthusiast.While Suzuki's adventurous visual widescreen composition and impressionistic editing remain the most rewarding aspects also ins particular film, I'm left wondering why "Tokyo Drifter" worked for me and this one didn't. Perhaps the former was easier to place in contradistinction to the genres and "film mentality" it's toying with. Perhaps it was an "easier" film, more "conventional" and thus "conventional" enough to be more readily appreciated. Or perhaps we've come so far in self-reference and parody both in the art-house and mainstream that the latter film simply hasn't aged as gracefully. I just thought it stretched too far, never inviting me in. I've felt the same about the most disconnected Greenaway, too.The Criterion Collection has other Suzukis on offer, and I think I'll somehow come back here when I've experienced them. Perhaps by then I'll understand more of Suzuki, and/or myself.

This is the story of a Japanese hit-man, No. 3 Killer. He really loves the smell of boiling rice, for some reason. I have no idea what that means, but I feel it should be mentioned as Suzuki inserts this fetish into just about every other scene. Anyway, the usually reliable No. 3 (I would assume anyway, considering he ranks third in what is bound to be a pretty difficult business) botches an assassination attempt when a butterfly lands on the barrel of his sniper rifle, obscuring the view of his target. Because of this he becomes the target of the famed No. 1 Killer. No. 1 decides to toy with his prey first, going so far as to move in No. 3 providing just about the only entertainment in the film.Suzuki hurtles the story through space and time at an incredibly brisk pace (particularly in the first half hour), often refusing to take the time to set up locations and situations, causing a rather confusing sense of geography for many scenes. The action takes place in a similarly disjointed manner. Sometimes things happen so quickly, they seem like the filmic equivalent of run-on sentences. Or, perhaps a better way to put it would be that Suzuki is that guy we all know who tells stories too fast, jumping over and skipping around some of the small details, the little ones that help the story make sense. Perhaps, in a way, Suzuki is not interested in perpetuating the illusion of the motion picture and wants us to remember that we are just watching a movie. I personally think he's just being lazy. Though, he does seem to have some sense of composition, sometimes creating fantastic images. But just as often his use of blocking becomes irritating.Eventually, Suzuki slows down a bit and begins to construct something interesting. Hell, when No. 1 moves in with No. 3 it becomes damn entertaining. But, by then, it is far too little, far too late.

Much has been made of how weird and off-beat Branded to Kill is. However it is important to consider it as part of Suzuki's progression through film-making. Before you can break the rules, you have to master them. Suzuki did so in several of his earlier pictures, from Underworld Beauty to Tattooed Life. And every time he was called to deliver a run of the mill yakuza flick, he infused it with his personal style. More and more he fractured the visual language of cinema every time, until he got rid of it or transformed it into a psychotic beast for Branded to Kill, revealing what lies beneath.A plot synopsis would read something like this: Jo Shishido is killer Number #3 with ambitions of becoming Number #1. Who is Number #1? Does he even exist? That is until he's called to transport a client safely. The borders between realism and surrealism blur hopelessly at that point and what follows is a nightmarish concoction of beautiful set-pieces that lead up to his final confrontation with Number #1.Saying that Branded to Kill is weird is an understatement. In turns fascinating, confusing, nonsensical, surrealist, psychotic, thrilling, poetic, nightmarish, confusing, tiring, mind-numbing and exhilarating, it defies description as much as it defies sense. The boundaries of time, space and logic are blurred and all you can do is experience the ride. It doesn't try to make much sense and apparently Suzuki made it up as he went along. The result was to be fired by Nikkatsu Studios for delivering a picture that "made no sense". I don't blame them really. Studios are businesses and Branded to Kill is not a movie with massive appeal. Ahead of its time in that aspect.Filmed in beautiful black and white, with a languid jazzy score and a film-noir ambiance, Branded to Kill will certainly appeal to people with strange tastes. Don't go in expecting a yakuza action flick (although there are several gunfights and enough action to go along) or you'll be sorely disappointed. As an indication of the uncharted territories Branded to Kill's treads, I'll guesstimate that fans of Eraserhead-era Lynch, Koji Wakamatsu and Singapore Sling's style will appreciate it. I can't say "like it", because ultimately that's between the viewer and Branded to Kill to sort. Either way, it has to be experienced at least once. Just sit back and let the surreal absurdity of it all wash over you...