The Threat / 脅迫 おどし / Odoshi (1966)

Obscure Japanese Film #44

Rentaro Mikuni and Ko Nishimura

This Toei production begins with a wedding scene reminiscent of the one which opens The Bad Sleep Well. Misawa (Rentaro Mikuni), a sales manager, has arranged a sham marriage between his boss’s mistress and an employee in order to cover up said boss’s philandering. During his speech, Misawa lays it on a bit thick singing the praises of the newlyweds. On the face of it, this beginning has nothing to do with the rest of the movie. However, it is significant in that it reveals an important aspect of Misawa’s character – he is by nature a collaborator, a man only too willing to be used.

Hideo Murota and Ko Nishimura

 Soon after the wedding, Misawa finds his home invaded by two escaped convicts who have kidnapped a baby and need a place to hide out for a night or two until they can collect the ransom and flee Japan by boat. The two men are the small but cunning Kawanishi (Ko Nishimura) and his dim sidekick, Sabu (Hideo Murota). Both Misawa and Kawanishi were soldiers during the war but, unlike Kawanishi, Misawa has no experience of killing, so Kawanishi considers him a coward for keeping his hands clean and enjoys tormenting him for this reason. At one point, he snorts contemptuously, ‘You’ve probably never even raped a woman!’ When coerced into helping Kawanishi collect the ransom money, Misawa seems only too keen to oblige and does more than he is asked, apparently out of cowardice.[1] These scenes are made even more pitiful to watch due to the disparity in size between these two terrific actors – it’s like seeing a German Shepherd being bullied by a Chihuahua. The suspense in the film mainly comes from waiting to see whether Misawa will finally grow a pair and stand up to the intruders.

 

I remember once reading somebody describe Tatsuya Nakadai as the Japanese Brando. Personally, I don’t consider that a very accurate comparison as Nakadai is no method actor and his style seems quite different to me. But you could certainly make a case for Mikuni as the Japanese Brando – his approach was far more method than Nakadai’s and, like Brando, he never bothered to try and court the audience’s sympathy. In this film, he takes a beating to rival the one dished out to Brando in The Chase. In another scene, he lays into his wife. As Mikuni was famous for taking realism to extremes, it may have been difficult to cast the female lead here, which is well played by the slightly dumpy Masumi Harukawa (star of Shohei Imamura’s Intentions of Murder). In fact, the cast is rock solid all round and it’s also nice to see Kunie Tanaka pop up as a dopey policeman.

 

Kunie Tanaka and Masumi Harukawa

 

Director Kinji Fukasaku went on to enjoy a long and successful career, of course, and on this evidence it’s not hard to see why as it's all very well staged and shot, especially the action scenes. He also co-wrote the screenplay and it’s the attention to psychology which really makes this film a cut above the average thriller.

The babysitter from hell.

 

At the time of writing, the film can be viewed on YouTube here.

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[1] Mikuni had actually attempted to evade the draft during the war. Though unsuccessful, he served as a soldier without ever firing his gun. Nishimura, on the other hand, had been a kamikaze pilot but survived after his mission was cancelled.