O Punhal da Vingança

Rusty Knife, originally known as Sabita Naifu, is a Japanese film noir that mixes elements of a personal drama with gangster movie tropes. This was the third movie by young director Masuda Toshio for Nikkatsu Studio and this promising talent would work on excellent films such as war epic Tora! Tora! Tora! And the adventurous Lone Wolf and Cub television series later on in his career. This film stars young couple Ishihara Yujiro and Kitahara Mie who have already been collaborating on great genre flick I Am Waiting one year earlier among other examples.

This film revolves around bartender Tachibana Yukihiko who has just gotten out of prison for murdering the man who raped his fiancee which ultimately led to her tragical suicide. While he wants to go straight, he is mixed up in illegal activities again because he was the witness to the staged suicide of a city council member five years ago. The mob tracks down and murders the two other witnesses and leaves Tachibana Yukihiko with the choice to take an impressive amount of money and remain quiet or to refuse collaboration and bring the criminals to justice. The young man decides to go down the dangerous road of confronting the gangsters and gets support from Nishida Keiko, the daughter of the assassinated city council member who becomes a close friend. The most important riddle to be solved is to find out who is pulling the strings in industrial town Udaka and giving the Yakuza orders to kill and bribe council members.

This film convinces on a few levels. The acting performances by Ishihara Yujiro and Kitahara Mie are strong from an individual point of view and excel when they appear together due to their excellent screen and real-life chemistry. The settings have been chosen with great care and show the sinister sides of an apparently soaring industrial town. The light and sound effects have been employed with great care and give the movie a grippingly oppressive atmosphere.

Rusty Knife is however not without a few flaws. The movie features quite a few lengths as especially the middle section is somewhat tedious. The soundtrack isn't as strong as the ones used for many other contemporary genre films. The story is quite predictable as it only takes a few moments to figure out who the main antagonist is.

At the end of the day, I would recommend Rusty Knife or Sabita Naifu to fans of film noir material and Japanese post-war cinema from the forties, fifties and sixties. This movie entertains with fitting light and sound effects, great acting performances and sinister atmosphere but fails to leave a lasting impression due to an exchangeable soundtrack, predictable antagonist and tedious middle section. This film deserves to be classified as a good genre flick but can't be considered a highlight that deserves to be revisited.

There's much to like about this film for noir enthusiasts. Moody characters, flawed protagonists, a great soundtrack, loose women, expert use of shadows to underline the plot, and much, much more. This is one that'll keep you riveted to the end. That said, there's some cheesy stuff as well. In particular plot elements that sometimes pop up rather conveniently take away from an otherwise very neat movie. The dialog can be stiff although some of that may be a result of the translation from the Japanese. Some sound effects, or rather their absence left me wondering. For example in the chase scene it looked as if the trucks were smashing each other yet there was no sound of the crash, just of the racing engines. In fight scenes the punches weren't always accompanied by the sound of a punch, or you could hear one but see no punch. Finally the choreography of the fight scenes left much to be desired. People flew around without being touched and punches were thrown that obviously did not connect. The studio should have taken lessons from Hollywood about staging fights. But all in all, a fine movie that also reunites two fine actors, Yujiro Ishihara and Mie Kitahara, who two years earlier starred in "Crazed Fruit".

Far too wordy and expository in its script, with plot points explained by characters ad nauseum, making even its modest 90 minute run time seem long. The film goes for something pretty interesting, with crimes committed by the yakuza going unreported out of fear, and events of the past resurfacing to suck a guy who is trying to go straight back into tangling with the gang. He also wonders if he killed the wrong guy in retaliation.

Unfortunately, the execution left a lot to be desired, with questionable character actions, telegraphed plot developments, and some pretty awful fight scenes. The incredibly hammy acting during a death by poison scene should be shown to all young actors as an example of how not to do it. I loved the idea of the larger, unseen force behind organized crime, when we find the kingpin himself is taking orders from someone, but those moments are tarnished later when the mystery man reveals himself and acts in a silly way. Joe Shishido ("Joe the Ace"), who sadly just passed away at 86, appears pre-cheek augmentation surgery in a small role, and may have ended up being the highlight for me.

Film 2/5 watched from the Nikkatsu Noir DVD boxset, the first being 1957's I Am Waiting, which I watched last night. While that one was a pretty decent watch, Rusty Knife was one that I liked quite a bit more.

With its story of two ex-criminals who are trying to move on with their lives - despite being asked to testify for a murder case by the police, and being pressured to say nothing by the gangsters they used to associate with - things are a bit more exciting and engaging. Characters aren't particularly deep but they serve the story well, and the main antagonist for much of the movie is very unlikable (as he should be).

It's paced well and the 90-minute runtime passed by very quickly. I will say though that elements of the ending feel a bit rushed, and there's one contrived event right near the end that feels lazy and a bit laughable. But then that final shot (held for a very long time) is really great, and mostly redeems some of the problems with those last few scenes.