recommended

Absolutely amazing

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

TOKYO DRIFTER is an action thriller film that on a unrelated, disoriented and possibly destructive way shows the life of a yakuza. A contrast is expressed in the fact that a well-known yakuza becomes a drifter because he chose to live honestly.Tetsuya is a member of a recently deactivated Yakuza gang. His boss, to whom he holds absolute loyalty has given up the life of crime. Tetsuya wants to change his life. A rival gang boss attempts to recruit Tetsu into his organization, but is turned down. However, the yakuza are determined to get him back into their life - or kill him if he refuses...Mr. Suzuki has showed a surrealistic style mixed with a pop culture, noir and westerns. An unconventional story is full of black humor, which receives an inappropriately tone. Because of this, a vivid action gets iconic character. This is especially true in a very interesting fight in a brothel. A tense atmosphere is great, the environment is impressive, and the melody is excellent. However, plots are very confusing and it is very difficult to link this movie into one whole.Tetsuya Watari as Tetsuya "Phoenix Tetsu" Hondo is too cool for a disappointed former assassin. However, his strange character fits perfectly into this experimental style. If a dangerous yakuza has no friends, why would a singing drifter had friends.

Stylish with dramatic b/w photography at the start and near b/w in the later snow scenes but bright and colourful sequences along the way with great use made of neon signs and the pop colours of the late 60s design. The yakuza tale told is, as usual, rather confusing. its partly all the unfamiliar names that we find difficulty in remembering or differentiating from each other and partly because there are certain taken for granted bits and bobs that are not so obvious to western audiences. Not least do we find the 'honour' concept hard to comprehend, 'giri' being rather different to our pretty basic comprehension of the US TV representations of their own mafia. But never mind, here we have the ultimate 'Mr Cool' treading a difficult path, this way and that, indeed becoming the 'Tokyo Drifter' and we just have to stop fighting it and accept what is presented and enjoy.

A crime boss and one of his men decide to go straight. In gangster-movie land, of course, their decision is met with conflict as another, rival gang is basically hellbent in messing up everyone's Christmas by bringing the boss's main man, Tetsu, back into the world of violence he's trying to escape. Of course, Tetsu isn't very much of a pushover--in two ways, being that he's both stuck to his decision and also capable of wiping out entire roomfulls of baddies with grace and acumen and a small gun that only fires ten meters.Suzuki's Tokyo Drifter is called a "free-jazz gangster film", and that fits the description to a tee. It starts out mostly like a French gangster film, with airs of Melville, then slowly escalates into comedy, violence, and more and more mod set pieces, showing influences throughout cinematic history. It wouldn't even really be fair to say it has any one theme or direction, so it also could fit the improvisation view of jazz.There are some really stunning moments, most of them involving the set-pieces. Suzuki seems to delight in art decor and mod style. He loves bright, striking colors, and his camera work is at times quite flamboyant (the half-gelled lenses during those scenes in the snow come to mind). If anything, this movie is like candy--delicious to the eyes, but would probably have been sickening if there had been too much of it. However, in good sleazy movie form, Suzuki keeps the length to just under an hour and a half, providing respites throughout in some surprisingly tender scenes.--PolarisDiB

"Tokyo Drifter" is my introduction to the cinematic work of director Seijun Suzuki and it made quite a big impression. This is by far one of the most visually unique movies I have ever seen and the fact that it was made in 1966 makes it even more impressive.Tetsuya played by Tetsuya Watari is a yakuza who has joined his boss Kurato (Ryuji Kita) in going straight. Unfortunately for both of them a rival gang begins threatening Kurato's legitimate business. After a brief confrontation Tetsuya is forced to leave his boss that way he would hopefully relieve the pressure between Kurato and the gang. Things don't go as smoothly as Tetsuya planned and he finds himself chased by gangs all over Japan.The story is standard fare yakuza tale. With a hefty doze of betrayal, inner power struggles and a bit of melodrama in the form of Tetsuya's girlfriend. We've seen it all before. Now. What really sets this movie apart from any other is it's unique visual nearly surrealistic style. Suziki employs several tricks in order to assure that the film will remain distant from any other. His use of colors creates one part of the that. More accurately his use of color contrast, we see that in several scenes through the movie, for example during the final shootout we see gang members dressed in primarily black suits while the location itself was in mainly white bright colors. Tetsuya himself is often dressed in colors that merge him with the backgrounds further helping in the creation of the film's extravagant look. The second aspect of the movie's uniqueness is the camera work and the overall directing. Suziki employs techniques that are reminiscene of western movies and more specifically Sergio Leone's line of work. The final shootout again serves as a great example of that.The acting is on par with the script, characters are well played by their respective actors. They don't make an overly big impression but certainly don't deteriorate the quality. The film has a good music score with a particularly memorable theme song by the main actor Tetsuya Watari that is always nice to hear and fit's very well with the mood."Tokyo Drifter" is a movie that offers stunning visuals and a plot that while not very deep in characterization is still able to carry the film's unique style. Mister Suzuki is able to impress, sadly his production company at the time wasn't on the same opinion and soon after he was fired and blacklisted for 10 years. A real shame for a director with such talent.