Day 39: Tokyo Drifter (1966)

With “Tokyo Drifter,” our second Seijun Suzuki film of “The Criterion Summer,” we have a colorful smash bang picture that was filmed before yesterday’s ”Branded to Kill,” but certainly holds the genesis for “Branded’s” crazy style. A mix of pop art flavor and “New Wave” aesthetic, “Drifter” is a classic “man versus the world” tale that takes itself more seriously than “Branded,” but is no less fun.

In “Drifter,” Tetsu Hondo is a ex-member of a recently deactivated mob gang, who now serves his boss Kurata in legitimate real estate deals. Though most of the old gang has dispersed, Kurata had always been like a father to Tetsu and so the two have remained loyal to one another even as their business ventures have floundered and brought them into debt.

But, loyalties are soon tested when an old rival mob group, ran by the devious Otsuka, wants Tetsu to leave Kurata and start once again a life of crime. Tetsu turns them down without a second thought, infuriating Otsuka, who sets a price on the ex-mobster’s head. With all of Tokyo’s underworld after him, Tetsu takes the advice of Kurata and leaves town, becoming a drifter and moving from town to town.

But, one day, while hiding away in the North country, Tetsu finds out that Otsuka and Kurata have joined forces in a real estate scheme and plan to send hitman “Viper” Tatsuzo to take him out for good. Betrayed and now friendless, Tetsu heads back for Tokyo, set on revenge against his enemy and former boss. Though a life of peace is what Tetsu seeks, he’ll have to blasts his way through his old ways to get there first.

As mentioned before, “Tokyo Drifter” is certainly playing with pop art style and mood in a way that would later come out in full force with “Branded to Kill.” While the latter film took the cliches of 1960′s action films and amplified them to their greatest extreme, “Drifter” is tonally more mild and treats these sort of scenes more like homages than graphic exaggerations. For instance, at one point, Tetsu finds himself in a Old West themed bar (swinging doors and all) and, naturally, a brawl breaks out with everyone getting involved in the tussle. Though “Branded” might have taken this to a new level, “Drifter” lets it play out as you would seen in any classic western.

Another great aspect of “Drifter,” is the manipulation of color used to portray both characters and situations. Throughout the film, Tetsu wears light colored attire, from starting the film in a sky blue suit to finishing it in a white one. You could almost say this choice shows Tetsu’s transformation from a once dark soul trying to be better (sky blue) to finally accomplishing the goal and now striving for justice (hero white). Also, in the final scene, color is used to show the distinction between deaths as Tetsu takes down Otsuka and Kurata’s henchmen one at a time. As the entire room’s color changes from deep red to white, we can gather a visual representation of Tetsu’s triumph beyond the simple body count.

With “Tokyo Drifter,” Seijun Suzuki delivers a film of vibrant visual complexity and cooler than cool style. Without a doubt an influence on today’s directors, especially Quentin Tarantino’s “Kill Bill” series, “Drifter” will certainly remain as a film that inspires the brain’s of artists and excites the eyes of all.

To learn more about “Tokyo Drifter,” check out Criterion’s page here.

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