A film that feels like James Bond by way of Seijun Suzuki, Black Tight Killers is bright, vivid, colourful, and rather horny. Director Yasuharu Hasebe had Suzuki as a mentor, which becomes incredibly evident with how sequences have a very pop-art feel to it all dressing a gangster film. Akira Kobayashi is rather suave and striking while still being incredibly playful in the role of war photographer Daisuke Honda. While we are introduced to him in the midst of photographing the war in Vietnam, a true introduction is given right after the film’s flashy intro number. Daisuke, with only a handful of clothes, is in need of his attire to be fixed up. He stands out among the rest of the people on his flight by mere virtue of being half-naked. This might as well be his main charm as the film finds just as many excuses to get him in various states of undress as they do the group of female ninja and his love interest, Yuriko, a stewardess on the plane he was on at the beginning.
While fun and bonkers, those moments become more and more few and far between as the film goes on. The use of weird gadgets by the lady ninjas such as laughing gas and tape measure swords are used less and less as the plot to uncover some lost gold is unearthed and characters end up giving lines of exposition with no visual interest whatsoever just to keep the film moving forward.
A film that feels like James Bond by way of Seijun Suzuki, Black Tight Killers is bright, vivid, colourful, and rather horny. Director Yasuharu Hasebe had Suzuki as a mentor, which becomes incredibly evident with how sequences have a very pop-art feel to it all dressing a gangster film. Akira Kobayashi is rather suave and striking while still being incredibly playful in the role of war photographer Daisuke Honda. While we are introduced to him in the midst of photographing the war in Vietnam, a true introduction is given right after the film’s flashy intro number. Daisuke, with only a handful of clothes, is in need of his attire to be fixed up. He stands out among the rest of the people on his flight by mere virtue of being half-naked. This might as well be his main charm as the film finds just as many excuses to get him in various states of undress as they do the group of female ninja and his love interest, Yuriko, a stewardess on the plane he was on at the beginning.
While fun and bonkers, those moments become more and more few and far between as the film goes on. The use of weird gadgets by the lady ninjas such as laughing gas and tape measure swords are used less and less as the plot to uncover some lost gold is unearthed and characters end up giving lines of exposition with no visual interest whatsoever just to keep the film moving forward.
