#39: Tokyo Drifter
Hey there buddies,
All I want to share is this recipe for one-pot spaghetti and a wish that you have a beautiful week!
#39: Tokyo Drifter
Director: Seijun Suzuki
Country: Japan
Year: 1966
Runtime: 82 minutes
Language: Japanese
**As always, this post contains spoilers**
CW: Murder, violence, suicide, blood
One of the side effects of the coronavirus is brain fog; you may feel confused, unable to focus, or your memory may feel impaired. Basically, your thinking sucks. Josh had it pretty bad when he had COVID, so when this movie was over and he said, “That movie made me feel like I was in the heat of Coronavirus again,” I knew what he meant immediately. It meant we shared the experience of not knowing what the fuck was going on with this movie at all at any time. And thank G I’m not being paid to right this recap, so I can be honest with you.
It’s not that it was some experimental plotless arthouse film. There was a plot! The director just didn’t let us in on what it was or do a great job of telling us who is who.
The combo of Suzuki’s deep disinterest in establishing characters, as well as a subtitle error (they misnamed a character!) was a real doozy. But I’m thrilled to report that with the help of Wikipedia, I was eventually able to piece together a very loose outline of what happened because for YOU? Anything.
So there’s a yakuza boss named Kurata (Ryūji Kita) who has retired and disbanded his group. We know this because he’s dressed in a sweater vest. In order to be able to “go straight,” he’s had to get into some other money-making venture, which he does by buying a building. But! He’s had to borrow money from a guy named Yoshii in order to do so. This will be important!!
His #1 guy, Tetsu (Tetsuya Watari), who wears a very nice suit the entire movie, is still very close to Kurata and will basically do anything for him. He and Kurata discuss how they might pay back Yoshii and they land on 3 million cash and the rest in notes. Are notes IOUs? Remember that scene in Dumb and Dumber lol
Tetsu visits Yoshii to let him know their plan and he reiterates that they’re absolutely definitely out of the gang life now.
Yoshii seems cool with the whole thing. Yoshii also has a young female secretary named Mutsuko (Tomoko Hamakawa) who is having a secret affair with a yakuza member from one of Kurata’s rival gangs. But who’s even keeping track because when you break from a gang, it’s super clean and easy!
Chiharu (Chieko Matsubara), Tetsu’s girlfriend, is a singer. When we meet her, she’s just singing next to a guy playing piano in a very empty, very yellow restaurant.
A gang guy shows up, smacks the piano player, and sort of takes Chiharu hostage? He puts a gun to her back and gets her in a car with a driver. But the driver is Tetsu!
He takes her to an arcade where they play a shooting game. He drops her off at home like they’ve just had a totally normal date.
Right about now is when the movie went off the rails for me ~*~personally~*~ What I THINK happened is a rival boss named Otsuka (Eimei Esumi) has gotten wind of Kurata’s debt to Yoshii and for some reason wants to use that as a way to take money from Kurata or otherwise fuck with him? Unclear.
But what happens is Otsuka is able to con Yoshii into coming over, saying Kurata put him in charge of the debt. He bullies Yoshii into handing over the deed for the building and stamping his hanko on some other unknown papers. Unfortunately, the gang shoots and kills Yoshii as he’s trying to leave and Tetsu arrives (again, I don’t know why he went over there). They push Tetsu off a ledge and leave, thinking he’s dead.
Otsuka then goes to Kurata and is like, “You’ll never believe, but your guy Yoshii was just at my place and I paid him 8 million yen for the deed to the building. So I guess you’ll now have to pay ME 8 mil to get this here deed back.” Of course this does poorly because Kurata 1) doesn’t have 8 million and 2) he’s OUT OF THE MOB YOU GUYS.
There is a shoot out and Yoshii’s secretary (who, for some reason, is there) is shot and killed as is her lover from Otsuka’s gang.
Everyone debates about if they should call the police when Tetsu shows up and says, “Why not report Yoshii’s murder, too?” OOOOHHH! Is there ever going to be anything cooler than a person who everyone thought was dead walking into a room and saying ANYthing? “Guac is extra...that okay?” “Could you...check this mole whose borders are irregular?” “I...just farted.” Could be anything.
Kurata is able to leave peacefully with the deed somehow.
That night, Tetsu torches his car in a giant incinerator that is just a cement room with fire coming out of the walls which was p cool.
Otsuka’s group realizes they just can’t have this Tetsu guy and his daddy Kurata just out here being alive so they vow to kill him. Otsuka’s main guy is a guy named Tatsuzo The Viper (Tamio Kawaji).
Tetsu, who is realizing he doesn’t want to be a yakuza anymore but also can’t just be a normal guy decides to become a drifter. Specifically, “a tramp from Tokyo.” Kurata is sad but understands and gives him some money for the road.
Tetsu takes a train somewhere snowy and when he’s arrested by a “detective” (spoiler: not a real detective), a group of other men capture him and take him to a hotel to keep him safe. I have no idea who these men are or why they knew where he’d be or why they’re protecting Tetsu SO DON’T EVEN ASK.
There’s a wild fight at the hotel that night between a bunch of men in suits with swords and a few guns. I think they are Otsuka’s men. Tetsu escapes and is again drifting, walking on the train tracks.
With a train coming at his back and Tatsuzo (The Viper) in front of him, he shoots Tatsuzo.
Tetsu makes it to an inn after sludging his ass through the snow.
Tatsuzo falls through his door, shooting. He has a gross, bloody, dangly hand and asks Tetsu why he didn’t just kill him. Tetsu gets shot in the arm but manages to escape. A bunch of Otsaku’s men in suits and snow boots surround the inn.
But! An ex-member of Otsuka’s gang, Kenji (Hideaki Nitani), is amazingly there to slap them all around and protect Tetsu. Back in the room, Tetsu and Kenji talk. Kenji tells him not to be too trusting of his boss, Kurata, to which Tetsu replies, “I disagree.” Which is something I need to start saying more often. No explanation.
Tetsu hits the snow road again and boards a train.
Chiharu, his girlfriend, is on an opposite stopped train. She reaches out her hand to him, but he declines her.
I guess this is a good time to admit that 80% of why I want a high speed railway system in this country is for romantic train station moments. I wouldn’t know, but there’s really nothing like them.
Tetsu arrives at a Western-themed saloon that is owned by one of Kurata’s allies, Umetani (Isao Tamagawa). There is an outrageous bar fight that involves truly everyone and lots of the building collapsing.
During the fight, Kenji and Tatsuzo (The Viper, who is obsessed with killing Tetsu and therefore following him) get into a shoot out. Tatsuzo kills himself.
So, unfortunately, Kurata and Otsuka have joined forces and put a collective hit out on Tetsu. I have no idea why, but it’s a big time betrayal. The only part of this I understood was that Otsuka wants Tetsu’s girlfriend, Chiharu, too. He thinks once she learns Tetsu is dead, she’ll be single and ready to mingle.
Kurata calls his ally and local Coyote Ugly franchisee, Umetani, that he needs to “rub out” Tetsu.
Kurata jumps the gun and tells Chiharu that Tetsu is dead. She is, of course, devastated.
Kenji, the hero of this movie, tells Tetsu that Kurata wants him dead and he needs to get out of there. Tetsu doesn’t believe him until he kicks the card table and slaps him around a little bit.
As Umetani is shooting at him, Tetsu decides to return to Tokyo to learn the truth for himself.
Tetsu returns to Tokyo to a huge room where Chiharu is being forced to sing by Otsuka and his men. There is a shootout and Tetsu kills everyone except Chiharu.
Kurata appears with a gun and tells Tetsu to drop his.
There’s a bunch of cool moves I can’t describe but Kurata no longer has a gun and Tetsu does. Tetsu breaks a brandy glass in his hand and says, “I’m not your man anymore,” and walks away.
He hugs Chiharu goodbye and says “A drifter needs no woman.”
Before Tetsu leaves, Kurata cuts his wrist with a piece of the brandy glass. Tetsu walks out the door and down the street.
The End.
PHEW. I can’t tell you how much brain power that took.
I also want to partially redact a statement I made in my last newsletter which was: all movies should be 90 minutes long. No. This movie, which ran 82 minutes, needed a The Departed-length amount of time to set up characters, tensions, motivations, and place. Do you have a friend who maybe isn’t the best oral storyteller and you have to keep asking, “Wait. But why? Wait. Where are we? Wait. Who said that?” Ironically, I am that friend and while I love myself, I shouldn’t be trusted to give you a brief rundown of my day or explain a celebrity feud. I need time and so did Tokyo Drifter. It’s almost as if…things take…as long as they take…
This movie is an absolutely delicious visual treat re: lighting, staging, costumes, setting, and color, as you’ve seen from the screenshots above. But I am ready to move on!
And move on we will. Up next is Armageddon. I am already completely overwhelmed. See you there!
XOXO,
Steph