Black Tight Killers

Yasuharu Hasebe's 1966 film "Black Tight Killers" is the kind of film that puts a smile on my face. It takes what could have been a lame Z grade picture and enlivens the story by using the medium - showing lots of colour, sets, shadows and angles to move the story forward instead of relying on too much exposition. Of course having a whole whack of go-go dancers, female ninjas and guys in trenchcoats helps keep things fun as well.

Though there's some pointed references about the aftershocks that remain from the damage caused during WW II (by both U.S. and Japanese decisions), the main push of the story is the war photographer in pursuit of the kidnappers of his stewardess girlfriend. But back to the go-go dancers:








And the use of colour:








And the Ninjas (the Ninja chewing gum bullet is my new favourite weapon):





And the shadows:






And the Bond-like spy vs. evil men stuff:







And the dream-like environments (the first three below are actually from a dream):










Barely need subtitles, eh?

That's fortunate actually because the Image Entertainment DVD has very poor quality subtitles rife with spelling and major grammatical mistakes. There's even a few instances where I couldn't figure out what the hell they were talking about.

But no mind. The film is a blast and still packs a punch.