Brand of Evil / 悪の紋章 / Aku no monsho (1964)

Obscure Japanese Film #229

Tsutomu Yamazaki

 

Kikuchi (Tsutomu Yamazaki, the kidnapper from High and Low) is a police detective investigating the murder of a young woman. The trail leads to company boss Shibata (Rokko Toura), but he suddenly finds himself falsely accused of accepting bribes from a drug dealer and is kicked out of the police force and sent to prison for two years. After his release, he manages to find work with a private detective agency on condition that he drops any notion of trying to clear his name. He agrees, then promptly sets about trying to clear his name, during the course of which he finds himself involved with Setsuko (Michiyo Aratama), a young woman he sees falling victim to a pickpocket on the subway…

 

Michiyo Aratama

This co-production between Toho and Takarazuka Eiga was based on a 1962 novel of the same name by Shinobu Hashimoto, who co-wrote the screenplay with Sakae Hirosawa and the director, Hiromichi Horikawa. Horikawa and Hashimoto had previously collaborated on The Lost Alibi (1960) and Shiro to kuro (1963), two similarly dark and twisty crime thrillers, and both had begun their film careers under the tutelage of Kurosawa. The master’s influence is apparent here in the way certain scenes are shot and the use of weather to heighten atmosphere. In fact, the moody high-contrast cinematography comes courtesy of Yuzuru Aizawa, who had shot The Bad Sleep Well (1960). Another asset is a strong jazz score by one of Japan’s top composers, Toshiro Mayuzumi, while the excellent cast also includes Kyoko ‘Woman in the Dunes’ Kishida, Keiji Sada and, wasted in a tiny role as the head of the detective agency, Takashi Shimura. 

 

Hashimoto’s view of the world tended towards the misanthropic, and none of the characters in Brand of Evil are terribly nice. In fact, one of the most memorable scenes involves the supposed hero torturing a hapless yakuza stooge to the strains of a Strauss waltz (‘Rosen aus dem Süden’), which reminded me of the way Tarantino used ‘Stuck in the Middle with You’ in Reservoir Dogs, although Tarantino certainly took it to another level. 

 

Keiji Sada and Tsutomu Yamazaki

In my view, the film is slightly less effective than The Lost Alibi or Shiro to kuro because the combination of the lack of a sympathetic protagonist combined with a rather convoluted plot and slightly excessive running time of around two hours and eleven minutes makes it hard to feel emotionally invested in the story all the way to the end. It’s also hard to forgive the demeaning portrayal of a disabled character, Setsuko’s friend Tsuyako, played by Toshiko Yabuki. 

 

Rokko Toura

 

The School of Flesh / 肉体の学校 / Nikutai no gakko (1965)

Kyoko Kishida

 

Taeko (Kyoko ‘Woman of the Dunes’ Kishida) is a wealthy, aristocratic and self-confident Tokyo fashion designer who visits a gay bar, where she is attracted to younger, proletarian bartender Senkichi (Tsutomu Yamazaki, the kidnapper from High and Low), whom she asks out on a date. The rumour that he’ll sleep with absolutely anyone for money fails to put her off, but she’s taken aback when he turns up wearing geta (wooden sandals), chews with his mouth open and takes her to a pachinko parlour, but she soon gets over it and the two embark on a relationship. However, when her friends ask her if Senkichi is kind to her, she realises that she can’t think of a single example of his showing such a quality and begins to feel somewhat insecure in their relationship. But it turns out that Senkichi is actually far more conventional than he pretends to be…

 

Tsutomu Yamazaki

 

This Toho production was based on a novel of the same name by Yukio Mishima first published in 1963 in serial form in a magazine called Mademoiselle. Although it has yet to be translated into English,* this appears to be a very faithful adaptation and Mishima is on record as being highly pleased with it. The author’s obsession with physical beauty and the psychology of infatuation are much in evidence, but the protagonists are both hard to like and I can’t say that I personally found the story very engaging. Most of the drama comes from the shifting balance of power in their relationship.

 

What really makes this film worth seeing, however, is the striking visual style that director Ryo Kinoshita (b.1931) and his cameraman Yuzuru Aizawa (who also shot The Bad Sleep Well) bring to it. Kinoshita was a former assistant to Yuzu Kawashima (and no relation to Keisuke Kinoshita as far as I’m aware). The rest of his brief filmography looks pretty routine, but he was one of those directors whose career began a little too late, leaving him few opportunities to show what he could do for the cinema before he was forced to move into television instead. In fact, part of the reason for the move in his case may have been that the bigwigs at Toho were, apparently, displeased with the arty visuals in The School of Flesh. However, in my opinion, the use of deep focus, unusual camera angles and bold lighting effects makes this film a visual treat throughout. 

 

 

The age discrepancy between the two characters is less pronounced than in the book, which describes Taeko as being 39 and Senkichi 21 – at the time of the film’s release, Kishida was 34 and Yamazaki 28. The two stars had both been members of the Bungakuza theatre company and knew each other well. Another person associated with Bungakuza was Yukio Mishima himself – the company had staged a number of his plays, often featuring Kishida, an actress who was both admired and befriended by the writer.

*The novel has appeared in French and also provided the basis for the French film L’ecole de la chair (1998) starring Isabelle Huppert.

Thanks to A.K.