Film Review: Tokyo Drifter (1966)

He never could adjust to normal life. He was fast, reliable, and was most accurate if he could shoot within 10 yards. Such was the resumé of Tetsuya “Phoenix” Hondo (Tetsuya Watari), the central character of Seijun Suzuki’s 1966 yakuza crime film Tokyo Drifter.

The film opens with Tetsuya being beaten up and left in the grimy Tokyo waterfront by a rival gang, headed up by ruthless mob boss Otsuka (Hideaki Esumi); this after Tetsuya’s boss Kurata (Ryūji Kita) vowed to leave the yakuza and focus on legitimate enterprises, among them a nightclub and building he owns, but is in arrears. Tetsuya, bloodied but unbowed, vowed to stick with his boss even outside of crime, and a father/son bond is created.

Otsuka, seeing an opportunity to take on more territory, attempts to take over Kurata’s loan on his building and, consequently, the building itself; doing this by tricking the loan-holder into Otsuka’s office, forcing the deal to go through, and killing the loan officer at the end of the “transaction”. Tetsuya’s efforts to help throughout this convince Kurata that he needs to let Tetsuya leave and become a “drifter”, which he reluctantly does.

Tetsuya then leaves Tokyo and starts on a trek throughout Japan, one step ahead of a group of Otsuka’s assassins, set out to kill him. As the efforts intensify, Tetsuya eventually is faced with a decision: continue battling it out with Otsuka’s men throughout the country, or go back to where it all started, and finish it… once and for all.

I’ve seen my fair share of trippy ‘60’s films, but never have I seen such a colorful noir film as Tokyo Drifter. Suzuki’s direction may seem at first blush to be a bit slap-dash in its cutting, but taking a step back and re-examing the film makes me feel that he almost did that on purpose: I was never bored, and the cuts made me continually invested in what was going on on the screen. And have I mentioned the colors? Holy shit the colors! Suzuki made amazing use of color throughout the film, from the popping club interiors to even the wardrobe choices: just watch for Otsuka’s red suit and Tetsuya’s powder-blue suit he wears through most of the film. At times the blue suit almost disappears in scenes set in a snowy landscape, at others… almost like a neon sign set against the brick and dirt of the city. Suzuki makes amazing use of color (and lack of it; the opening scene plays out in a heavily washed-out black-and-white sequence that is gritty and real), scene-cutting, and motion to keep viewers involved and active.

As much as I enjoyed the action and color of the film, the hole I most wanted to poke in the film was Tetsuya’s character itself: while he was/is the eponymous “drifter” the title of the film refers to, the character at times was written almost like a child running away from home: resolute in their determination to be “big” and take on the world all by themselves, Tetsuya wasn’t allowed a full arc to better resolve the love he had for his girlfriend Chiharu (Chieko Matsubara). But who am I to argue with a splashy gangster film?

If you want a fast-moving Japanese gangster flick from the 60’s, don’t pass this one up. Currently, it’s available both in physical and streaming format from the awesome folks over at the Criterion Channel: https://www.criterion.com/films/577-tokyo-drifter

Jake is a digital nomad, content creator, and classic film geek. If you want to read more, make sure and check out his main Medium page (medium.com/nomadicjake), or visit his homepage (https://nomadicjake.co/)