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Jiro (Yujiro Ishihara) is a gangster from Tokyo who has found a safe
haven in Kobe, out of reach of Tokyo authority and able to make up a
reputation for himself as long as he can't be connected to any crime
committed here ... but since he has only bumbling detective Noro to worry
about, he figures he's got nothing to lose ... and that's true for the
longest time, until he falls in love with Keiko, worryingly enough the
(innocent as can be) sister of a drug dealer whose demise he might or
might not be responsible. Now love might be a beautiful thing, but for
Keiko, Jiro has dropped his moll Mami, and she won't accept rejection,
even if that drives her to extremes ... and then there's Paku, who has the
hots for Mami, and to get rid of Jiro, he even stoops so low as to become
a stool pidgeon for the police. All this catches Jiro in a downward
spiral, and eventually, detective Noro, who's much smarter than anyone
would give him credit for, but also much more sympathetic, catches Jiro
red-handed committing a murder (not something Jiro does all that often to
begin with), but Mami helps him break free and hopes to escape with him to
Hong Kong on the next boat - but Noro knows how fond he is of Keiko
actually, and sets up a trap ... Red Pier might not
exactly have reinvented the genre, but it's a great gangster movie out of
Japan when that genre experienced a bit of a boom also due to production
house Nikkatsu's
new direction and new practice of hiring fresh talent to break with the
tradition of Japanese cinema - and this is totally mirrored in this movie:
Even if it is more than half a century old at the writing of this, it
still has this fresh, young, cool feel to it in direction, performances,
camerawork, everything, and it tries to test untested ground. Now that's
not to say Red Pier is an undisputed masterpiece even, because
frankly it's not without its minor flaws, but the film really manages to
entertain, and despite its black-and-white imagery and it's decidedly
yesteryear props and locations, it feels ... really young, actually!
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