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An awful lot of gangland killings leads the police to the conclusion
that they have a gangwar between the two local gangs at hand. Private Eye
Tajima (Jo Shishido) however thinks otherwise, and he persuades the local
police to let him handle the case. Thing is, police have arrested one of
the gangsters involved in the latest incident, Manabe, but they have to
let him go due to lack of evidence - which is pretty much a death sentence
for Manabe because outside truckloads of hitmen from both local gangs are
waiting for him. In a daredevil manouevre though, Tajima manages to snatch
Manabe from right under their noses, gain his trust and let him lead him
to his gang's hideout - and it really is a third, top secret gang
specialized on stealing smuggled goods from the two other gangs in order
to take over their turfs. The gang's leader Yoshihama though is a very
cautious man, and he desperately tries to look through Tajima's
smokescreen of lies to find out if he's really trustworthy - which among
other things forces Tajima into a song-and-dance rouitine (!). Tajima
has one unexpected ally in Yoshihama's gang though, Yoshihama's own
girlfriend Chiaka, who has no problems finding out who and what he really
is, but instead of blowing the whistle, she begs him to save her from the
gang. Eventually, Yoshihama too sees through Tajima's web of lies and
lures him into one death trap after the next, but to an array of listening
devices, Tajima manages to stay ahead of everyone else most of the time,
and even learns who the big boss behind Yoshihama is. Ultimately though,
Tajima and Chiaka end up in a burning basement while Yoshihama's gang
seems to be able to make another clean getaway with another truckload of
smuggled goods - but by that time, Tajima has long informed both the
police (to save him) and a rival gang (to take care of Yoshihama's gang),
and in the end, all the baddies get their just desserts while Tajima gets
the girl. On a story level, this film doesn't sound like much -
sure, it's your typical gangster story, but it's also a bit too convoluted
to always make heads and tails of it, and it often strains believability
beyond its limits. That said though, you just cannot judge a Seijun Suzuki
film by its synopsis alone, what the film lacks in plot is made up by a
light-footed, well-paced, tongue-in-cheek direction that adds all kind of
crazy and unexpected setpieces (like Jo Shishida's song-and-dance routine)
to the story and brings it to the screen in a very stylish, almost
artificial way full of one-of-a-kind images and the like. The outcome is a
piece of slightly bizarre genre entertainment that's totally recommended -
even if it's not one of Suzuki's best films.
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