Tattooed Life
Tattooed Life (aka Irezumi Ichidai) was an existential Yakuza film made by Seijun Suzuki in 1965 for the Nikkatsu Film Corporation during one of Seijun's most prolific and controversial eras. It was preceded by Gates of Flesh (1964) and Story of a Prostitute (1965) and followed by Tokyo Drifter (1966) and the classic Branded to Kill (1967). By the end of the decade he was fired from Nikkatsu and essentially banned from making movies in Japan; his resurfacing in the 1980s pleased many of his loyal fans. 
Yakuza movies were strictly b-movies and Seijun was like a Japanese Sam Fuller, figuring that as long as his pictures came in on time and under budget anything goes. Yakuza films, of course, also predate other "tattoo" films such as the hallucinatory Illustrated Man with Rod Steiger (1969) (based on a Ray Bradbury short story) and David Cronenberg's Russian mafia movie Eastern Promises (2007) with Viggo Mortensen and Naomi Watts. Tattooed Life starred Hideki Takahashi as Tetsu
the "White Fox" (or "Silver Fox" depending on your translation) and Masako Izumi as Midori who falls in love with the marked man with a secret past. Tetsu and his art-school brother Kenji (Kotobuki Hananomoto) are on the run from a killing (in self defense) and arrive in a port city on the Sea of Japan seeking passage to Manchuria where they can escape the police and the Yakuza family who is chasing them. While working for a small 
mining company, the brothers meet Midori and her sister Masayo (Hiroko Ito), who happens to be married to the boss of the mining company. The brothers are pursued by a strange man in red shoes, and dodge text-book shady waterfront characters left and right, including the pencil-pushing Ezaki (Yuji Odaka) whose unrequited love for Midori drives him toward jealous revenge. Tetsu, who has raised his younger brother since childhood (their parents died when they were young) warns him that "sometimes there are things you have to give up when you become a man" and "don't get carried away by emotion." Kenji's death, it seems, was fated when he was unable to control his forbidden love for the married Masayo. The film, which features many shots with character's backs to the camera, through open windows, etc., works despite its cardboard characters, sparse dialogue, and see-through plot lines.
Tattooed Life (aka Irezumi Ichidai) was an existential Yakuza film made by Seijun Suzuki in 1965 for the Nikkatsu Film Corporation during one of Seijun's most prolific and controversial eras. It was preceded by Gates of Flesh (1964) and Story of a Prostitute (1965) and followed by Tokyo Drifter (1966) and the classic Branded to Kill (1967). By the end of the decade he was fired from Nikkatsu and essentially banned from making movies in Japan; his resurfacing in the 1980s pleased many of his loyal fans. 
Yakuza movies were strictly b-movies and Seijun was like a Japanese Sam Fuller, figuring that as long as his pictures came in on time and under budget anything goes. Yakuza films, of course, also predate other "tattoo" films such as the hallucinatory Illustrated Man with Rod Steiger (1969) (based on a Ray Bradbury short story) and David Cronenberg's Russian mafia movie Eastern Promises (2007) with Viggo Mortensen and Naomi Watts. Tattooed Life starred Hideki Takahashi as Tetsu
the "White Fox" (or "Silver Fox" depending on your translation) and Masako Izumi as Midori who falls in love with the marked man with a secret past. Tetsu and his art-school brother Kenji (Kotobuki Hananomoto) are on the run from a killing (in self defense) and arrive in a port city on the Sea of Japan seeking passage to Manchuria where they can escape the police and the Yakuza family who is chasing them. While working for a small 
mining company, the brothers meet Midori and her sister Masayo (Hiroko Ito), who happens to be married to the boss of the mining company. The brothers are pursued by a strange man in red shoes, and dodge text-book shady waterfront characters left and right, including the pencil-pushing Ezaki (Yuji Odaka) whose unrequited love for Midori drives him toward jealous revenge. Tetsu, who has raised his younger brother since childhood (their parents died when they were young) warns him that "sometimes there are things you have to give up when you become a man" and "don't get carried away by emotion." Kenji's death, it seems, was fated when he was unable to control his forbidden love for the married Masayo. The film, which features many shots with character's backs to the camera, through open windows, etc., works despite its cardboard characters, sparse dialogue, and see-through plot lines.
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