• 拳銃は俺のパスポート (A Colt Is My Passport), 1/9/23 (Mon)

If Sergio Leone had made a yakuza flick, it would probably look a lot like Nomura Takashi’s fine A Colt Is My Passport, including its no-talk-all-action star Shishido Joe in the Clint Eastwood role, the final shootout in a deserted landscape, and Ibe Harumi’s superb Morricone-like score. (The film was released a year after the completion of Leone’s Dollars Trilogy.) It also borrows a moment from Hawks’ Rio Bravo when Joe’s erstwhile companion, played by half-British pop singer Jerry Fujio, is handed a guitar that just happens to be sitting there (“It’s been a while. Sing something”) and croons a ballad. Itami Juzo’s 1980s comedy Tampopo is famous as a takeoff on a spaghetti Western, but this film beat that by two decades, though as homage rather than parody. Others have noted touches of the French New Wave in the detailed way that Joe puts together his weapon for the initial kill and later carefully builds the bomb for the climactic scene.

Still, the creative and confident way these elements are used gives the film a vibe all its own. A no-nonsense hitman (Shishido) and his young accomplice assassinate a yakuza boss at the behest of a rival gang in an intricately planned operation, but are two-timed when the rival and the dead man’s son make peace and decide to kill the killer. The rest of the movie is about the hunt, involving seedy hotels, numerous close calls, deft escapes, and plenty of violence. Just when Shishido has found a foolproof way out, he learns that his accomplice has been caught. He negotiates the latter’s release while giving himself up in exchange. He agrees to hand himself over to the bad guys at a huge landfill the next morning, where he knows they will waste no time in offing him. But as we can guess, he is not going to go out gently. He goes to the site early and digs what will either be his lifeline or his grave. The over-the-top showdown is a sight to behold.

Shishido is perfect as the unflappable hitman, a man of few words (asked how his last victim died, he mutters unemotionally, “Same as always”) and fewer emotions. He warns his protégé not to become too attached to things like fancy guns and cars (he disposes of his own getaway car by driving it into the ocean in a great shot where the body comes flying out of the vehicle just before it plunges off the pier) and resists getting overly involved with a woman who takes a fancy to him. His only weak point is his integrity: he willingly gives himself up in exchange for his friend, and when he agrees to meet the angry gang the next morning in an empty field, making himself a virtual sitting duck, we know he’ll stick to that despite the risk. It’s hard to take Shishido entirely seriously with those puffy cheeks, but his performance couldn’t be bettered. Kobayashi Chitose offers great support as the motel worker who falls for Shishido and dreams of escaping with him.

Nomura’s approach is lean and fast-paced (other than the moody ballad, but that’s what happens when you cast a singing star). This is Japanese noir at its best.