Other Titles • Branded to Kill (1967) • Beruf Mörder (1967)
Synopses for Koroshi no rakuin (1967)
1.
In this cinematic masterpiece Seijan Suzuki transcends the B-movie genre. Fired after making it, he was unable to work for ten years. Branded to Kill follows the strange day-to-day existence of an expert hit-man who carries out his orders with steely determination and impassive cool. All hell breaks loose, however, when a butterfly alighting on his rifle scope results in a botched job, and a death sentence for the screw-up. Joe Shishido, with his collagen-enhanced cheekbones, makes a terrific antihero whose unusual quirks (Suzuki reasoned that a man obsessed with the scent of warm rice would signal to audiences that this guy was quintessentially Japanese) instantly endear him to newly-made fans.
2.
Seijun Suzuki's last film for Nikkatsu, Branded to Kill is the wildly perverse story of the yakuza's rice-sniffing "Number Three Killer." Sleazy yet elegant, Branded to Kill deconstructs gangster cliches and eluded censorship by the Japanese film board with its inventive use of framing and mattes. From a cookie-cutter studio script, Suzuki delivered this brutal, hilarious and visually inspired masterpiece--and was promptly fired.
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