I used to say that Japanese films were somewhat odd. I don’t know why, but that was what I used to say. Well, I should probably take that back, since I think only this Japanese movie, Tokyo Drifter, is genuinely odd. All those other films were at least high art of a sort..... this film is just strange.

Tokyo Drifter is a 1960’s B-movie, that the back of the DVD packaging describes as a cross between Russ Meyer, Samuel Fuller, and Nasiga Oshima. While I can’t vouch for Fuller and Oshima (never having seen their work), I can see a slight bit of Meyer... but there’s no large-breasted women floating about, only the crazy editing and cheesy jazzy-loungy type of music that found their way in Meyer’s work.

The story is a quickly-told tale of gangster life, Tokyo style. The film begins with members of a rival gang beating up the hero. The hero doesn’t fight back, apparently because he and his gang are now legitimate, so cannot resort to violence. This surprises the rival gang, as this fellow has a rep for being a good shot -- normally he probably could have shot all of the guys in about two seconds.

The hero and his boss now have gone legit, as I’ve already said. After about two weeks, I’ve plainly forgotten what their business supposedly entails, but the fact is that the gang own a building and are in dealings with a business man. The rival gang possesses the building by tricking the business man into believing that the hero’s boss has given the rival gang’s boss the remaining debt. So of course the gang war returns with a vengeance.

Later on, our hero decides he’s going to “drift” -- he’s going to leave the gang and move on. Even when I was watching the film , I never quite understood why the hell he left, although members of the rival gang follow him for the rest of the picture. In any case, this drifting sets off the last portion of the film, in which the hero meets up with another former gangster, who tries to convince him that his boss, who considers the hero a son, will sooner or later betray him to save his own hide. Our hero doesn’t believe him at all.

This is a strange film. The story line seems similar to other gangster flicks, and the moral seems to be that it is truly impossible for a gangster to go “straight”, but the film is just weird. The film is only 81 minutes, so obviously there isn’t much room for character development. There’s also some odd cinematic choices. For some reason, the first sequence is in tinted black and white, except for a sequence meant to represent to us visually what the rival gang says about the hero’s violent skills.

There’s also some just plain goofy and/or campy scenes. The most silliest scene involves a brawl at a club that simulates the saloon in an old Western, and certainly trumps any ridiculous brawls that can be found in a John Ford picture. For about five minutes we get a Japanese parody of a barroom brawl, with chairs being tossed and smashed on people, and even women lined up in a row to playfully smash bottles on those louts’ heads.

I can’t say that I really liked this movie all that much. It does have a campy style that makes it amusing for its 81 minutes, but it’s just a silly picture, the sort that played on double bills in Japan, and was possibly meant to be disposable. Now, of course, most likely because it’s old, campy, and Japanese, the film and its director have a following. I was lightly amused, but, being the occasionally pompous guy that I am, I think I’d consider the more classier Japanese films as more satisfying viewing.

Recommended:
No

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV