A Delinquente

A gangster tries to find redemption with the inadvertent help of an innocent shop girl and his jealous girlfriend will do anything to keep him.

Who knew there was the Japanese jazz scene, with men hanging out, smoking cigarettes and dressing like hoodlums -- it all seems so American, much like Ozu's "Walk Cheerfully" made Japanese gangsters circa 1930 look American. Maybe the "American gangster" is not such a strictly American thing after all.

Of Ozu's silent crime films, this is the one that seems to be the most well known. At least, it is the only one that actually has a Wikipedia page (as of May 2015). This period needs more examination. There is more to world cinema in the 1930s than what most of us take for granted.

DRAGNET GIRL is one of Yasujiro Ozu's early works, a criminal melodrama with a few proto-noir touches. Its story is pretty standard and features a love triangle between a criminal seeking to make good, a respectable young woman, and a moll with a heart of gold. However, those interested in how the gangster picture manifested outside of the United States during its original 1930s golden age will be very interested in this film, not to mention devotees of silent film and Ozu.

The story follows four characters: Tokiko (Kinuyo Tanaka), a gang moll who works a legit job as a secretary at a large firm so that she can get extra cash from the company's president's son, money that she uses to keep Joji (Joji Oka), a former boxer turned minor criminal gang boss. When young hothead Hiroshi (Koji Mitsui) joins the gang, his nice-girl sister Kazuko (Sumiko Mizukubo) implores Joji to help set her brother back on the right track. Joji starts to fall for Kazuko, which causes Tokiko a lot of grief and sets her on an unpredictable path.

This is Ozu's most technically accomplished film to date, even if he is still making them in the silent format. His camerawork and use of evocative shadowing are notable. Tanaka gives a splendid performance as a complicated character making rash decisions that only make sense coming from someone who is desperately vulnerable. Ozu continues to place American movie posters in his settings, this time featuring some from The Champ and All Quiet On the Western Front. Sharp-eyed viewers may notice Ozu regular Chishu Ryu in a small bit as a cop. Recommended. (

As this started I realised that it was a silent film and noted later that even though I have seen many of Ozu's films, never the silent ones of which there are at least twenty, but never even other Japanese silents. This is a wonderfully clear blu-ray from BFI and the photography splendid. I understand that Ozu loved the gangsters but I have to say that although in the gym is well shot but the boxers we never see them fighting and although all the men wear their fedoras and coats there is never any great action. We also have the girls, the gangster's moll and the good girl working in a shop, she wants her brother to leave the gang, she tries to get the gang boss to influence him and she falls in love with him. It is interesting but even though it is trying to be American, with all the posters and signage and the wisecracking and gun-toting it is really still very Japanese.

I've watched a couple of very early Yasujiro Ozu films recently, and wasn't thrilled with them. Dragnet Girl was the last of his silents I wanted to check out, and I was very glad to find this one was really solid. I feel like the director is starting to come into his own here, even if the crime elements of this story are at odds with the more grounded dramas he became best known for making (though there are sequences of Dragnet Girl that do foreshadow the focus on drama to come; it's not "just" a crime/gangster movie).

Maybe the first couple of years of Ozu's filmmaking career were a little shaky, but by the time he got to 1933, he was capable of making some good stuff... and then obviously got even better by the time the 1950s came around. The plot here can be a little muddled, but there are some emotional moments that ring true, and I think it's shot really well for a film of its time, making it an early Ozu film that feels pretty easy to recommend.