Tokyo Drifter

[Bill Thompson]

KineJapan ---

I was amazed to discover Suzuki's Tokyo Nagaremono (Tokyo Drifter)
among the TV listings for the American cable channel Bravo
this week!  I believe it played around 1:15 this morning (figures)
and will be repeated about 4:00 this afternoon.  Usually with
Bravo presentations films play several times during a month,
so more viewing opportunities should present themselves.

Over a decade ago, long before Suzuki was discovered by the West
in European and American film festivals, I helped the Asia Society
in New York put together a three film introduction to Suzuki
and wrote the enclosed program notes.  Enjoy.

Bill Thompson




Tokyo Drifter (Tokyo Nagaremono),
directed by Suzuki Seijun, 1966.
Screenplay by Kawauchi Kohan from his novel.
Cinematography by Mine Shegeyoshi.  Set Design by Kimura Takeo.
Music by Kaburagi Hajime.
CAST:  Watari Tetsuya (Hondo), Matsubara (Chiharu), Nitani Hideaki
(Aizawa), Kita Ryuji (Kurata), Esumi Hideaki (Otsuka).
A Nikkatsu Corporation Production.  Japanese with English subtitles,
color, cinemascope, 83 minutes.

THIS FILM IS RECEIVING ITS NEW YORK PREMIERE TONIGHT

Tokyo Drifter,
the concluding film in Profile: Suzuki Seijun, is a kitch parody
of the Japanese yakuza
film which achieved cult status because of its flamboyant
style and off-beat comedy.  Although yakuza
pictures can be traced back to the 1930's, the modern genre
really took off in 1963.  Its popularity lasted for just over
a decade.

Historically, the yakuza
class came into being late in the Tokugawa shogunate (1603-1867),
a period of peace and stability following centuries of strife and
civil war.  As samurai power declined and ennui set in, this class
of outsiders, particularly gamblers, gained a foothold in several
urban areas.  They originally followed very strict codes, which then
were a combination of Bushido
("the way of the warrior") and Neo-Confucian ethics.  Today these
principles have been corrupted, so yakuza
are generally considered to be gangsters with elaborate codes of
behavior.  There were an estimated 110,000 members of 2500 gangs
in Japan in 1978.

The yakuza film genre
of the '60's often relates the tale of an innocent gang member who
cannot adjust to the corruption of contemporary society;
it usually ends in a vile bloodbath with the young hero nobly
sacrificing himself either alone or with his closest friend, with
whom he has just reconciled, while decimating a hostile
rival gang.  Several characters are always stock
in these films.  Anyone who has seen two or three of these
pictures can easily predict the action.

The Nikkatsu Corporation assigned Suzuki Seijun to make a yakuza
film using pop singer Watari Tetsuya, a Japanese Elvis-type, and
his hit song "Tokyo Drifter."  Suzuki completely subverted the
studio assignment while subverting the genre.  There is a plot
to this pop art cinematic comic strip:  Tetsu, its hero (Watari),
wanders around Japan, having left the Kurata Group to go straight,
but constantly finds himself being drawn into gang struggles; he
eventually learns how corrupt and meaningless his "sacred" codes
have become.  Although this plot has served many a yakuza
picture, this is where the similarity ends.

The heroes of yakuza
movies are usually only slightly bigger than life, possessing many
human foibles.  Suzuki exaggerates their cliched mannerisms to the
extreme.  Naive Tetsu survives more brawls than Humphrey Bogart in
The Big Sleep,
so his charmed life becomes a legend.  The super-romantic singer
Chiharu remains loyal to Tetsu, her love interest, well beyond
the norm.  The vile Viper can only be found in such fiction.

Plot development is spoofed as well.  Suzuki ends several of his
scenes before their logical completion, sometimes making
Tokyo Drifter 's
thin plot difficult to follow (but not impossible, as the studio
later claimed when dismissing him).
In describing the lonely life of the vagabond,
the theme song "Tokyo Drifter" provides delightful counterpoint
by constantly recurring after Tetsu's greatest triumphs.  Suzuki
unforgettably spoofs the American western with a no-holds-barred
brawl in the tacky Saloon Western in Kyushu (southern Japan).

The stylish decor and rich, garish lighting of the Alulu Club
can only be partially appreciated due to the fading color of today's
print (this is unfortunately the only subtitled print in existence).
With the appearance of each new gangster or shot, a new color
invades the screen.  In an interview about another picture,
Suzuki explains the symbolism of his colors to the Japanese:
green represents peace and calm; red, suddenness and fear;
yellow, gentleness and compromise; violet, repulsion; and
white, solitude.

Suzuki, who directed several "B" action films in his earlier years,
became known for his genre satires, especially of yakuza films.
Kanto Wanderer (Kanto Mushuku,
1963) features several quasi-Brechtian alienation devices.
He even ridicules censorship in
Code of the Killer (Koroshi no Rakain,
1967), his final Nikkatsu picture before his expulsion (only
Elegy To Violence was made between Tokyo Drifter and
Code of the Killer).