The hitman has been an eternally interesting archetype to filmmakers, from the earliest film noirs to the last two films of Linklater and Fincher, two of American cinema's pop-auteur elder statesmen. This is no truer than in Japan, with the likes of Suzuki's Branded to Kill and Woo's The Killer sitting as two of the country's major cult classics. Less is known in the west of the parallel work that was going on as Suzuki was working, that of his seemingly more straightforward contemporaries. Arrow Video are looking to rectify that with this release of Kazuo Mori's 1967 ‘Shiozawa' films.
The two films are, narratively speaking, similar enough. Both follow Shiozawa, an enigmatic, secretive hitman (in A Certain Killer he leads a double life as a Sushi chef, in A Killer's Key a classical dance teacher) in his daily life, his relationships, his work, and the various double crossings that attempt to upend his stoic existence. So far, so recognisable for the genre, but it is the film's stylistic and thematic coldness that sets them apart. A Certain Killer in particular is almost entirely devoid of feeling; its protagonist numb to violence, sex and the money he chases and, unlike other hitmen of the era, he is never presented as an attractive figure, if anything, when you see him, alone sat on the floor of his bare apartment, he is pitiable.
A Certain Killer is particularly interesting film when compared with Melville's Le Samouraï which was released six months later, both focussing on nearly silent hitmen, methodical in their methods. But where Melville's film is charged by existential angst, Delon's lead essentially a Bresson protagonist in more stylish clothes; Mori's film is far more bound in material concerns, one at pains to show money as the motivator at the bottom of everything in the world of the characters. There's a funny irony to this, Melville's (or at least, Delon's character's) orientalist fetishization of a Japanese Samurai mindset contrasted with Mori's character, who has a particularly ‘Western' capitalist attitude of the pursuit of money over everything, even if he gets no joy from the money itself.
A Killer's Key is marginally less actively cynical, but more resigned, more of a film that takes on the values of its protagonist; sparse and utilitarian, and boils original down to its absolute necessities. This means that it will be more trying for fans of Woo's take on the genre; neither film is action-packed, but the violence of the sequel comes like a sigh, a last gasp of a deflated society.
Both films are not only interesting takes on the genre in and of themselves, but mark an interesting point in Yakuza cinema, just as the moralism of the ‘ninkyo eiga' films of the early sixties begins to curdle into the cynical, more nihilistic true crime of the ‘jitsuroku' era, showcasing an experimentalism at the opposite end of the scale to Suzuki's formalism, a more terse, economical filmmaking that would go on to be the go to style of the genre. Key watching for those interested in the development of Japanese genre-cinema.
LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS
- High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentation of both films
- Original uncompressed Japanese mono audio for both films
- Optional newly translated English subtitles
- Brand new audio commentary for both films by critic and Asian cinema expert Tony Rayns
- The Definite Murderer, a brand new 30-minute introduction to the films by Japanese film scholar Mark Roberts
- Original theatrical trailers for both films
- Image gallery
- Reversible sleeve featuring newly commissioned artwork for both films by Tony Stella
- Illustrated collectors booklet featuring new writing on the films by Jasper Sharp and Earl Jackson
A Certain Killer / A Killer's Key will be released on Blu-Ray 10 February by Arrow Video