Branded to Kill

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Review added by
Michael Campbell

Certificate: 18
Running Time: 98mins
Retail Price: £19.99
Release Date: 28/07/14
Content Type: Movie

Synopsis:
Seijun Suzuki’s delirious 1967 hit-man film has drawn comparisons with contemporaries Le Samouraï and Point Blank and influenced directors such as John Woo, Jim Jarmusch and Quentin Tarantino among others.

The story of laconic yakuza Hanada, aka ‘No. 3 Killer’, the third rated hit-man in Japan who takes an impossible job from the mysterious, death obsessed Misako. Hanada bungles the hit and finds himself the target of his employers and a bullet ridden journey leads him to face the No. 1 Killer.

Shot in cool monochrome with beguiling visuals, Branded to Kill is an effortlessly cool crime film with a jazzy score that caused Suzuki to be fired by the studio’s executives but is now rightly recognised as his masterpiece.

Special Features:
· New High Definition digital transfer

·Newly translated English subtitles for both films

·Interview with director Seijun Suzuki

·Interview with star Jo Shishido by critic and author Koshi Ueno

·Trapped in Lust [Aiyoku no wana] (1973) – A delirious roman porno re-imagining of Branded to Kill from Atsushi Yamatoya, one of Branded to Kill’s screenwriters and Suzuki’s regular collaborators

·Original Trailers for Branded to Kill and Trapped in Lust

·Reversible sleeve with original and newly commissioned artwork by Ian MacEwan

·Booklet by Japanese film expert Jasper Sharp, illustrated with original stills and new artwork by Ian MacEwan