Press Release Criterion Press Release: Branded to Kill (1967) (4k UHD Combo) (Blu-ray) (1 Viewer)

[Ronald Epstein]

​

When Japanese New Wave bad boy Seijun Suzuki delivered this brutal, hilarious, and visually inspired masterpiece to the executives at his studio, he was promptly fired. Branded to Kill tells the ecstatically bent story of a yakuza assassin with a fetish for sniffing steamed rice (the chipmunk-cheeked superstar Joe Shishido) who botches a job and ends up a target himself. This is Suzuki at his most extreme—the flabbergasting pinnacle of his sixties pop-art aesthetic.

FILM INFO​

• Japan
• 1967
• 91 minutes
• Black & White
• 2.39:1
• Japanese
• Spine #38
  
  

  4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES​

  • New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
  • One 4K UHD disc of the film and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
  • Interviews with director Seijun Suzuki and assistant director Masami Kuzuu
  • Interview with Suzuki from 1997
  • Interview with actor Joe Shishido
  • Trailer
  • PLUS: An essay by critic and historian Tony Rayns
    
    Cover by Eric Skillman
    
    May 9, 2023

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Thank you for supporting HTF when you preorder using the link below. As an Amazon Associate, HTF earns from qualifying purchases. If you are using an adblocker you will not see link.

See on Amazon

 

[jayembee]

Awesome!

 

[titch]

Amazing that Criterion are releasing this on 4K UHD - I've had this on every release since the Criterion LaserDisc! Probably the most bat-shit crazy Japanese film I've seen. Bit surprised that they didn't release Tokyo Drifter in 4K UHD instead, but I'm now hopeful that Kurosawa 4K UHDs are in the pipeline.

 

[jayembee]

One of my favorite comments about this film, from back in the Usenet days, by a user named Rob Larsen:

"BRANDED TO KILL, on the other hand, is like TOKYO DRIFTER's drunk, crack-addict cousin who just happens to have taken some acid on the day you run into him."

 

[JoeStemme]

A major mob shootout. Raw S&M sex. Several assassinations. A hero who huffs steamed rice. A scorecard style ranking of hit-men. An explosive fireball. This all happens in the first half hour or so of Seijun Suzuki's BRANDED TO KILL.

Suzuki's cult film is a mad combo of violent Yakuza crime film, European New Wave and Film Noir. It commences at a frenzied pace where even the introduction a femme fatale who collects dead birds and butterflies seems perfectly normal - if not, somehow, expected. There are more jump cuts here than in a festival of Godard movies -- not to mention existentialism that rivals Melville.

BRANDED TO KILL is no mere homage, however. Suzuki and his team of writers have concocted their own stew. The film was said to have been written and edited quite rapidly, but it does have a certain internal drive if not quite logic. Veteran actor Jo Shishido barges through the proceedings as the main character referred to as “Number 3” (his ranking of local hit-men). Mariko Ogawa gets into the spirit of things as Number 3's sexually crazed wife and Annu Mari is perfect as the alluringly gloomy Misako.

The pace, if not the lunacy, is taken down a couple of notches in the second half as Number 3 comes face to face with the mysterious Number 1 (Koji Nanbara). BRANDED TO KILL moves at such a frenetic clip that it sometimes becomes too chaotic for its own good. Suspense has little time to develop and it curtails deep affinity for any of the characters. It's one of those pictures where a character stops to explain everything that's happening. Suzuki does use silence to effectively slow down the tempo.

It's best to take Suzuki's film as a sensory experience. Thrillingly so. A film that will leave many breathless asking WTF?! On that score, Suzuki's aim is firmly on target.