In spite of the consensus of the reviews here, this is not a dark, broody, atmospheric picture about the seedy Tokyo underworld, but plays more like the comic book style of the early serials.This film looks like it was made by someone who had never seen a film noir but instead had one described to them by a 10 year old. And this,it seems, is what the film's dialogue was based on.Childish and naive in the extreme - even the great Robert Ryan couldn't be bothered to try - and monotonously slow and boring, with each scene interminably longer than it needed to be.Very disappointed that this wasn't the great addition I thought it would be, to my huge collection of 40's and 50's classics!

House of Bamboo (1955)If you ever wondered if a film noir lead male could just be anyone, that he doesn't need talent beyond being tough and muttering terse nuggets, watch Robert Stack struggle in this film. He tries to pump up all the stereotypes, but he's playacting all the time, and because he's in most of the movie, it falls flat over and over. This is a slow-going, strained movie, and even though it's ambitious in many ways, it will mostly seem routine. All of this took me by surprise, because some of director Samuel Fuller's famous films, like Naked Kiss, are anything but routine.Not that this isn't a gorgeous film. Joe MacDonald is a first rate black and white photographer (film noir and other films), and he applies his visual sense to every scene. All in Cinemascope color! Yes, if you don't mind a relatively dull movie and can just watch, this one is really terrific pageantry. It uses the wide screen better than most, the framing and blocking really worth the ticket alone. And everything is done on location in Japan in the 1950s, just when the country is trying to shed itself of American occupation. Because of this there are many scenes that are almost travelog stuff, and all the streetsides scenes and interiors, the views along the canal and the big overviews at the end, are just superbly photographed.Of course, then you have to ask about all the many films made by Japanese filmmakers at the same time...some of which are not only more authentic, but much better movies all around. There's no use trying to apologize. The acting is totally uneven (the scenes with Robert Ryan come to life, a testimony to his presence and energy), and the plot is dull, lacking a conflict that is clear. There's only so far you can take ambiguous tension in a pretty movie like this. This is a retelling of sorts of a more gripping (and in some ways more formulaic) film, Street with no Name, which is a classic of its type. So kudos absolutely to Fuller for taking this to Japan, and for making it fresh in at least that one sense. We still could benefit from a more tightly conceived scenario, and maybe a less culturally stereotyped view of the city, where sure they had very mixed feelings about brash Americans.MacDonald's photography rules on this on. For example, look at the scene 50 minutes in, and see how simple it is to transform an ordinary conversation to something that has visual sophistication. There's a lot to look at. Keep watching and you'll see more astonishing visuals and set design (if you can call the locations shots that, with smoke pots and running men with tracking camera), all at a gravel pit. Really first rate.

House of Bamboo is an exciting film by Samuel Fuller that subverts the usual visual cues of the Film Noir genre to create a strong statement about the absorption of foreign cultures by other nations in the aftermath of war.One great element of the film is the presence of Japanese culture that is imposed onto every American gesture that Eddie and Sandy and the rest of the gang go through. Shot on location, nearly all the exterior shots include the distant presence of Mount Fuji or the urban landscape of Japan presiding over all the actions of Sandy and the gang as Eddie attempts to infiltrate their ranks.Sandy initially has Eddie beaten up over his attempt to muscle in on the Pachinko rackets that the American gangsters are controlling. As it turns out Sandy's gang have many more criminal interests including robbing a shipping company, a payroll delivery service, and later a pearl merchant. The bright-color visuals of this Asian world as a backdrop for the shadowy motives of the gangster world combines with the character motives and action in the film to create quite a treat for the lover of film noir.For one thing the typical visual noir trademarks are absent. There are no dark alley ways and no wet streets, and no Femme Fatale to accompany the fatalistic sense of doom pressing down on our protagonist. What Sam Fuller has done is to use the mysterious Japanese culture during the post World War 2 period and meld it with a police crime detective story to achieve a commentary on War and the essential effect it has on a civilization as it is absorbed by a dominating culture. In the reality of the film the crime that is never fully detected is that of America's ultimate violation of the Eastern cultures. This is shown in a number of ways.Sandy and his gang are basically a crime unit working in the Asian market after the end of World War 2 and taking advantage of every opportunity through their illegal activities. That Sandy is an ex-soldier as is his entire crew and also runs them like a soldiering platoon says volumes about the presence of American capitalistic domination of the country. The fact that they are operating in the country very much side-by-side with the Japanese businessmen in the pachinko parlors confirms that this Asian country is being absorbed by a world power.Consider how Sandy and his gang confront Eddie when he visits one of the Pachinko to extort money. Griff is waiting for Eddie to make a move and steps out and punches him through a paper screen into a room where Sandy awaits. The scene is introduced as Eddie attempts to shake down a local Japanese pachinko parlor manager but as the scene progresses, the manager merely retreats into the background as the American hoods push Eddie around. It is as if this American organization exists as some independent entity within this society taking from the revenue-generating culture as some sort of post-war occupation deal.The visuals pull us away from the usual noir cues and instead point us toward a vibrant culture around which the activities of the American gangsters and the Japanese culture coexist. The scene with Robert Stack's Eddie and Yamaguchi's Mariko are ones in which the basic attraction of man and woman is bracketed by the additional obstacle of different clashing cultures. Many things come out in their relationship like the way other Japanese women treat Mariko because of her dating an American.In one scene after Mariko is shamed by other Japanese women she and Eddie spend a moment alone as she messages his neck and tells him what she finds attractive in a man. This scene could have been covered for a maximum of sensuality but Fuller shoots it with one shot, slowly moving in for emphasis and then backing away. With simple lighting that reveals everything in the room Fuller merely lets the actors carry the story as Mariko whispers into Eddie's ears that she sees his "romantic eyebrows" as very attractive. Fuller pushes in with his camera in order to create a more intimate sense in the scene. This is very different form the usual coverage of wide shot, medium and close up as dialogue peaks in a scene. By merely moving his camera closer Fuller indicates that he doesn't wants to intrude too far into this world, but prefers to keep his distance.The director uses this same technique in a later scene when Sandy goes over his armored car holdup plan in which he excludes Griff. The scene is set up over a pool table where the crime leader has set up pool cues and toy trucks to plan out his mission. When Griff gets angry and confronts Sandy Fuller only pushes his camera in to capture the full picture of the men as they group together. Fuller lets his actors have their day with the performances, but the lack of traditional cutting creates the feeling that the viewer cannot get an inside look at this world.Fuller never shows the Japanese mafia of this period and how they possibly counteract the activities of Sandy and his gang. This causes House of Bamboo to feel off-balance- I kept wondering where all the Asian criminals were. Perhaps this was too great a menu for Fuller considering his marriage of West and East in the characters of Eddie and Mariko. Regardless of the absence of the local criminals, the film still moves along at a hasty pace with plenty of action and remains captivating still.

I was pretty excited about another Fuller film after being pleasantly surprised by his first two films seen the previous week, both of which were better than their reputations. Well, everyone has their missteps and this one seems to me to be a minor and fairly pointless film from this great director. A remake of the 1948 B&W noir Street with No Name, this moves the action -- a tale of an undercover cop trying to infiltrate and ultimately take down a big crime boss -- to occupied Japan, widens the screen to 'scope format and adds bright color. Small-time hood Eddie Kenner (Robert Stack) is ostensibly in Japan to make contact with an old friend who turns out to have recently been murdered, perhaps by his own organization, a pachinko parlor cartel run by Sandy Dawson (Robert Ryan). Stack makes friends with the dead man's widow Mariko (Shirley Yamaguchi) and worms his way into Ryan's group which of course turns out to be in business for more than just a few yen from gambling parlors.The action moves reasonably well, and the location shooting is nice (first American film made in Japan, apparently), but it just wasn't gripping to me and far too predictable; the earlier version is better as are quite a number of similar-themed films from the past few years. Worth seeing for Fuller completists, and one of his few color 'scope films, but don't expect anything on the level of Park Row or Pickup on South Street. DVD rental.