'Jûsangô taihisen' yori: Sono gosôsha o nerae

A 1960 police actioner from writer/director Seijin Suzuki (Branded to Kill/Tokyo Drifter) about a disgraced prison guard, Michitaro Mizushima, who loses some of his charges during a shootout during a nighttime transfer. Taking the law into his own hands but also at some point in the story cops are brought in, Mizushima tracks down the players behind the act siding up to the moll of one of the crooks in the hopes of getting back some dignity he suffered from the escape. As per Noir Alley's host Eddie Muller, the film was a revelation to Japanese audiences, especially the younger sect, which embraced the film embarrassing the honchos at the film studio but now 64 years after the fact the film is fine but ultimately safe when a lot of the gunfights which may've lit a fire under the viewing public butts now feel like so much uncontrolled chaos but the throughline of the plot is solid enough though.

(1960) Take Aim At The Police Van/ 'Jûsangô taihisen' yori: Sono gosôsha o nerae (In Japanese with English subtitles) CRIME DRAMA/ MYSTERY/ ACTION

The set up regards a prison guard, Daijirô Tamon (Michitarô Mizushima) getting suspended for six months as a result of failing to protect two prisoners. He then goes on an odyssey to find out why. First he would interview another former inmate prisoner who was also there by the name of Gorô Kashima (Shôichi Ozawa), as Tamon realizes he scribbled something onto the window on the bus they both riding on before the other two inmates were executed. And he tries to follow him after seeing the name Aki written on a piece of paper. Leading him to uncover two objectives which is to find out who was that lady he had seen on the fateful night during the bus ride and the identity of Aki who we find out is actually Akiba.

Despite it's short running time of less than a hour and a half, this was quite boring until it got to the very end with the gun shootings to be quite relative.

Great opening, but got messy quickly, and ultimately was an unsatisfying 79 minutes. The frumpled lead character (48 year old Michitaro Mizushima) reminded me a little of Glenn Ford in The Big Heat and the befuddling, often nonsensical plot reminded me of The Big Sleep, but Seijun Suzuki's work lacks the star power and atmosphere of those films. Questions piled up for me as I watched, and not just about the sequence of events from one scene to the next, but about basic character motivations for pretty much all of these people. The grand reveal of Akiba near the end was silly and a letdown too.

I never began actively disliking it though, because I never really knew what Suzuki was going to put on the screen next. There's a topless stripper shot in the chest with an arrow, and a James Bond like escape from an attempted execution (when of course a simple bullet would have made so much more sense). One of the mysterious young women being tracked down loves American rock 'n' roll, and has a gang of teenage friends pile out of car to protect her. There are several murders, but the main character believes in the goodness in people, and improbably the beautiful young femme fatale (Misako Watanabe) softens and falls in love with him. It's an absurdity set to a jazzy soundtrack and doesn't really work, but somehow held my interest. You can do better though.

Take Aim at the Police Van is action-packed, fast-moving Japanese Noir. Perhaps though, it's a little too fast moving. And unfortunately employs some rather erratic editing.

The story itself has all the makings of a good noir-ish detective murder mystery. Daijirô Tamon (Michitarô Mizushima) is a prison guard who has convicts murdered during a prison transfer. Tamon decides to hunt down those responsible. He quickly stumbles upon an "agency" that supplies young women as "showgirls" and "masseuses". There is no need to read between the lines or even get metaphorical as the fact they are being used as call-girls is blatantly evident. However, Tamon begins to have feelings for the agency's madam, Yûko (Misako Watanabe).

Directed by Seijun Suzuki, Take Aim at the Police Van builds up a good mystery and adds in a number of chases and shooting sequences. Yet the speed of the story and the choppiness of the editing truly shows that this was simply another movie quickly being fed through the Nikkatsu Studios machine. As swiftly Tamon decides to solve the case, the source of all the woe is discovered (also, such identity is not a shock), and the credits roll.

Take Aim at the Police Van is faster than service at a ramen house. But also quite tasty.

Film 3/5 in the Nikkatsu Noir boxset I'm working through, and I'd rank this behind Rusty Knife (film 2/5), but ahead of I Am Waiting (film 1/5).

I'll give it this: Take Aim at the Police Van has a great title and a great opening- both work well to get you hooked early to the simple premise (prison guard is partially blamed for deaths that weren't his fault, so he goes looking for the real killers himself) that soon balloons out and gets very complicated.

While some of the complexity and mystery is intentional, given the main character doesn't really know what's going on much of the time, I think it may have left the audience in the dark just a little too much. You could say that about a lot of classic noir, though- I think it's The Maltese Falcon where the writer even admitted he didn't really understand 100% of the plot.

(EDIT: legend actually goes that it was The Big Sleep where the screenwriters were confused by what they were writing. Do remember Maltese Falcon also having a confusing plot, for what it's worth)

But in any event, it stays entertaining because of the fast (if almost a little too quick) pace, the stylish direction, and some exciting sequences. Plus the mystery is a pretty decent one.

It all makes for an overall solid watch.