Coming to the end of ICM's 60's Challenge,I started trying to decide what my final viewing for the event would be. Finding the first two in the set to be great discoveries,I decided to check the third,and final Diamond Guy.View on the film:Ending their set on a high,Arrow give their final Nikkatsu pick a spotless transfer, with the picture quality allowing for the fast-pace action to be clearly seen,and the soundtrack to be pitch-perfect. Becoming the first film by him to come out in the West, (in any format!) the glimpse here makes the lack of anything from director Hiroshi Noguchi a tragedy.Backed by a studio trying to bring people to the cinema after the recent Olympics had led to a rise in TV sets, Noguchi & cinematographer Kazue Nagatsuka strike a winning combo of off the wall "Diamond Guys" Action with lightning-fast zany Slap-Stick Comedy. Brilliantly using wacky sound effects to give the off the wall antics extra zing, Noguchi gives each would-be assassin hilariously quirky appearances,from the mini-me Al Capone,to the Femme Fatale cocktail waitress.Loading the Diamond Guys of Nikkatsu with comedic bullets,Noguchi introduces each hitman with very funny chances to show off their unique skills. Making it clear early on who Joe of Spades (played by a wonderfully dead-pan Jô Shishido) is, Noguchi keep the action thrills rolling with silk,ultra-stylised whip-pans/fade ins/outs and overlapping shots that keep track on how close each him man is to sniffing out Joe. Sending everyone off in search of Joe,the screenplay by Kobako Hanato and Akira Saiga spectacularly sends up the image of the genre by putting all of the tough guys in clueless buddy Comedy mode,who bounce along with the quick-draw punch-lines from one shoot-out to the next,in the hope of getting the Joe of Spades in their hands.

Yes, it is that kind of a film.In the late 1950s and 1960s Japan's oldest film studio Nikkatsu issued a number of alternately yakuza action crime-cum-romantic features starring several of its famous in-house, i.e. contract, actors. These included Akira Kobayashi, Yûjirô Ishihara and Jô Shishido, the last man would famously appear in those eccentric Seijun Suzuki films like Youth Of The Beast and Branded To Kill. This is worth mentioning because as much as Dainippon Koroshiya Den - approximately 'Greater Japan Killers' Place Story' – is a screwball comedy it matches those later films in its eccentricity. The action happens in a 'city famous for murder' in Japan. Five crime lords in the city are targeted by a mysterious assassin with a literal calling card. To hammer his point home the assassin shoots the head of the cartel. All the targets know about the killer is that he has a mole on one of his feet and so they get to work flushing him out for elimination. Turns out the neighbouring town's boss is also in on the game and hiring his own assorted guns-for-hire. What follows is the biggest collection of goofball loser counter-assassins – hired from a temp agency for hit men and killers - that make a masquerade look conventional in comparison. There are sons and daughters, a native Indian, a cowboy, Al Capone's Japanese grandson, from when he visited Japan and shagged a dwarf apparently, and more. This film presages and is reminiscent of Inspector Gadget, Spy Who Shagged Me, James Bond, the Three Stooges, Benny Hill and even Thomson and Thompson of Tintin fame. Japanese cinema has quite a few zany films ranging from the excellent Tenten to the disconcerting Tokyo Sonata, incredulous Katakuri-ke No Kôfuku and the terrible Maikohaaaan!!. Murder Unincorporated is not only something else, but also a departure from the other entries in the Nikkatsu Diamond series and its crime-addled action features. Do not try to make sense out of this film. Switch off the brain and enjoy the absurdity.Favourite part? The precision shooting duel changing the dial and TV channel.