Part of the NO BORDERS, NO LIMITS: 1960s NIKKATSU ACTION CINEMA Retrospective

In Takashi Nomura's chilly noirish thriller, Jo Shishido plays a hitman hired by a gang to whack a rival boss. He does the deed with a sniper rifle and, together with sidekick Jerry Fujio, makes his escape. But before they can board their getaway plane, they are snatched by thugs from the rival gang. Through Shishido’s quick thinking, they make a narrow escape and end up at a cheap inn for truckers near Yokohama. They arrange passage on a boat bound out of the country, but deadly complications ensue, forcing Shishido to improvise yet another escape for himself and his partner, but before they can depart, they're forced into an explosive showdown with killers from the rival gang.

Released at the beginning of Jo Shishido’s second peak year at Nikkatsu—his first was 1961—COLT bears a family resemblance, in its hunted hitman hero, hard-boiled stylistics, impressionistic widescreen black-and-white photography, and mind-bending climactic shoot-out, to Seijun Suzuki’s better-known BRANDED TO KILL, made the same year.

Like Suzuki's film, the plot of COLT is spare, yet familiar, and one can see why the directors felt the need to bring such a fresh approach to the visuals. Though the formal experimentation and editing is in no way as extreme as in BRANDED TO KILL, it is still pretty much in evidence. The final showdown between a solitary Shishido and a bullet-proof car full of gangsters staged on a deserted beach at dawn, the howling wind sweeping sand across the ground, is as impressive as anything of the era in this neglected masterpiece.

Audiences may be surprised to discover, however, that COLT was released four months earlier than BRANDED, and that it gives fuller play to Shishido’s invention, panache and tough-guy cool, remaining one of the highly prolific actor's Nikkatsu favorites.

Synopsis adapted from the FAB Press book NO BORDERS, NO LIMITS: NIKKATSU ACTION CINEMA by Mark Schilling, additional contributions to this synopsis by Jasper Sharp (midnighteye.com). Films, posters, and still photos copyright Nikkatsu. All rights reserved.

A larger edition of the series was originally presented at the 2005 Far East Film Festival in Udine, Italy. The 10th anniversary edition of the festival will be held April 18-26, 2008.

Special Thanks to Marc Walkow.

Presented by Outcast Cinema.