REVIEW: Tokyo Drifter - Seijun Suzuki (1966)

Reviewed by Marc Saint-Cyr

“Tokyo Drifter” is vintage Seijun Suzuki. Because this is one of Suzuki’s yakuza films, the plot (which involves basic crime genre ingredients like warring gangs, villainous bosses and shady business deals gone awry) serves as little more than a skeleton that is adorned with wildly extravagant set pieces and visuals. “Tokyo Drifter” is a case for style over substance in the pulpiest sense.

The film follows Tetsu, an enforcer clad in a powder-blue suit who finds himself on the run from a rival gang. Before winding up back in Tokyo for the final showdown, he partakes in the gun battles, chases and ambushes one would expect from this kind of gangster movie. More surprising, however, is the riot of color and creativity that tastefully decorates these scenes. The neon-lit streets of Tokyo and nightclub interiors are awash in bright shades of yellow, red, pink and green that foreshadow the comic book look of Warren Beatty’s “Dick Tracy”. Similarly, the film includes a number of striking visual compositions that evoke well-drawn comic book panels, such as the overhead shot of a woman falling dead on a white carpet, or a standoff between Tetsu and a gangster on a railway as an oncoming train looms ominously behind Tetsu. The piéce de resistance is the film’s finale, which is set in a spacious, surreal white room furnished with Greek columns and a matching white piano.

“Branded to Kill” is famous for being the film that got Suzuki fired from Nikkatsu, but it’s easy to see how “Tokyo Drifter” helped fuel the contempt the conservative-minded studio heads had for the director. While it won’t be remembered for its story or characters (save maybe the baby-faced Tetsu), its daring sense of energy and fun will certainly keep it a mark above the other grade-B genre flicks from its time.

Read more by Marc Saint-Cyr at his blog.