殺しの烙印 Branded to Kill (1967)

~~~ 鈴 木 清 順 ~~~

Seijun Suzuki's last film for Nikkatsu, Branded to Kill is the wildly perverse story of the yakuza's rice-sniffing "Number Three Killer." Sleazy yet elegant, Branded to Kill deconstructs gangster cliches and eluded censorship by the Japanese film board with its inventive use of framing and mattes. From a cookie-cutter studio script, Suzuki delivered this brutal, hilarious and visually inspired masterpiece--and was promptly fired.