Movielogr

Rating: 7 stars

All movies seen on 07/02/2011

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Rusty Knife (1958)

Directed by Toshio Masuda

Crime

Overview

Udaka is a new, post-war city where corruption has already taken hold. A persistent district attorney wants to arrest and convict Katsumata, a laughing, self-confident thug. The D.A. gets an anonymous letter about the suicide five years’ before of a city council member. Evidence about the case leads the D.A. to Tachibana, struggling to go straight after involvement with the mob and a prison sentence for killing the man responsible for the rape and suicide of his fiancée. One of Tachibana’s friends is Keiko, the daughter of the dead councilman and the ward of another powerful official. How do these stories connect?

Length 90 minutes

Actors

Yûjirô Ishihara | Mie Kitahara | Shôji Yasui | Jô Shishido | Akira Kobayashi | Masao Shimizu | Naoki Sugiura | Toshio Takahara | Shigeru Amachi | Mari Shiraki

Viewing History (seen 1 time)

Viewing Notes

Sabita Naifu is the third or fourth Nikkatsu Noir film I’ve watched this year. While it’s not my favorite, it still holds up pretty well, albeit with some incredulous plot twists.

Those plot twists garner a “c’mon, really?” reaction that will take you out of the movie and blunt the edge of an otherwise pretty spectacularly noirish film, with some seriously flawed heroes, epic bad guys and lots of great, stark black and white cinematography.

Overall, the Nikkatsu Noir series has been great. If you enjoy classic Hollywood noir, you should do yourself a favor and check out this excellent box set from Criterion, part of their Eclipse Series.

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