Editing Branded to Kill (section)

==Reception==
{{Further|Seijun Suzuki#Suzuki v. Nikkatsu|l1=Suzuki v. Nikkatsu}}

''Branded to Kill'' was released to Japanese theatres on June 15, 1967,<ref name="JMDb">{{cite web
| script-title = ja:殺しの烙印
| publisher = Japanese Movie Database
| url = http://www.jmdb.ne.jp/1967/cq001780.htm
| language = ja
| access-date = 2007-04-02
| archive-date = 2007-04-21
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070421005514/http://jmdb.ne.jp/1967/cq001780.htm
| url-status = live
}}</ref> on a [[Double feature|double bill]] with [[Shōgorō Nishimura]]'s ''Burning Nature''. The films were financially unsuccessful and the former fared likewise among critics. ''[[Kinema Junpo]]'' magazine reported that the films "resulted in less than {{nowrap|2,000}} viewers at [[Asakusa]] and [[Shinjuku, Tokyo|Shinjuku]] and about 500 at [[Yūrakuchō|Yurakucho]] on the second day."<ref name="Miyao">{{cite book
| last = Miyao
| first = Daisuke
| author-link = Daisuke Miyao
| title = Japanese Cinema: Texts and Contexts
| publisher = [[Taylor and Francis|Taylor & Francis]]
| chapter-url = http://www.taylorandfrancis.com/shopping_cart/products/product_detail.asp?sku=&isbn=9780415328487
| archive-url = https://archive.today/20130203112007/http://www.taylorandfrancis.com/shopping_cart/products/product_detail.asp?sku=&isbn=9780415328487
| url-status = dead
| archive-date = 2013-02-03
| year = 2007
| isbn = 978-0-415-32848-7
| pages = 193–204
| chapter = Dark Visions of Japanese Film Noir
}}</ref> Both Shishido and Yamatoya later recounted having seen ''Branded to Kill'' in practically empty theatres, the latter on its opening night.<ref name="Miyao"/><ref>Schilling, Mark (September 2003). Ibid, pp. 128–130.</ref> Iijima Kōichi, a critic for the film journal ''Eiga Geijutsu'', wrote that "the woman buys a mink coat and thinks only about having sex. The man wants to kill and feels nostalgic about the smell of boiling rice. We cannot help being confused. We do not go to theaters to be puzzled."<ref name="Miyao"/> [[Nikkatsu]] had been criticized for catering to rebellious youth audiences, a specialty of Suzuki,<ref name="Richie"/> whose films had grown increasingly anarchic through the 1960s. This had earned him a large following but it had also drawn the ire of studio head Kyūsaku Hori.<ref name="Sato">{{cite book
| last = Sato
| first = Tadao
| author-link = Tadao Sato
| others = Translated by Gregory Barrett
| title = Currents in Japanese Cinema
| publisher = Kodansha International
| year = 1982
| isbn = 0-87011-507-3
| page = 221
| chapter = Developments in the 1960s
}} (Available [http://www.mip.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/cine_doc_detail.pl/cine_img/?15717?15717?1 online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231120161512/https://research-it.berkeley.edu/news/retiring-museum-informatics-and-interactive-university-projects |date=2023-11-20 }}, p. 4.)</ref><ref name="Tattooed Life">{{cite book
| last = Rayns
| first = Tony
| title = Branded to Thrill: The Delirious Cinema of Suzuki Seijun
| publisher = Institute of Contemporary Arts
| year = 1994
| isbn = 0-905263-44-8
| page = 38
| chapter = 1965: One Generation of Tattoos
}}</ref> On April 25, 1968, Suzuki received a telephone call from a company secretary informing him that he would not be receiving his salary that month. Two of Suzuki's friends met with Hori the next day and were told, "Suzuki's films were incomprehensible, that they did not make any money and that Suzuki might as well give up his career as a director as he would not be making films for any other companies."<ref name="Suzuki Battles Nikkatsu"/>

{{quote box|quote="Suzuki makes incomprehensible films.<br />Suzuki does not follow the company's orders.<br />Suzuki's films are unprofitable and it costs {{nowrap|60 million}} yen to make one.<br />Suzuki can no longer make films anywhere. He should quit.<br />Suzuki should open a noodle shop or something instead."|source=Kyūsaku Hori, [[Nikkatsu]] president<ref name="Miyao"/>}}

A student [[film society]] run by Kazuko Kawakita, the Cineclub Study Group,<ref name="movement film"/> was planning to include ''Branded to Kill'' in a retrospective honouring Suzuki's works but Hori refused them and withdrew all of his films from circulation. With support from the Cineclub, similar student groups, fellow filmmakers and the general public—which included the [[Picketing (protest)|picketing]] of the company's Hibiya offices and the formation of the Seijun Suzuki Joint Struggle Committee<ref name="Richie"/><ref name="movement film"/>—Suzuki sued Nikkatsu for wrongful dismissal. During the three-and-a-half-year trial the circumstances under which the film was made and Suzuki was fired came to light. He had been made into a [[scapegoat]] for the company's dire financial straits and was meant to serve as an example on the outset of an attempted company-wide restructuring. A [[Settlement (law)|settlement]] was reached on December 24, 1971, in the amount of one million yen, a fraction of his original claim, as well as a public apology from Hori. In a separate agreement ''Branded to Kill'' and his previous film, ''[[Fighting Elegy]]'', were donated to the [[National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo|Tokyo National Museum of Modern Art]]'s Film Centre.<ref name="Suzuki Battles Nikkatsu"/> The events turned Suzuki into a legend and shook the film world.<ref name="Sato"/><ref name="Suzuki Battles Nikkatsu"/> ''Branded to Kill'', along with other of his films, played to "packed audiences who wildly applauded"<ref name="Films of Suzuki">{{cite web
| last = Willemen
| first = Paul
| title = The Films of Seijun Suzuki
| publisher = Cinefiles
| url = http://www.mip.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/cine_doc_detail.pl/cine_img/?15717%3F15717%3F1
| page = 1
| access-date = 2007-04-02
| archive-date = 2023-11-20
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20231120161512/https://research-it.berkeley.edu/news/retiring-museum-informatics-and-interactive-university-projects
| url-status = live
}}</ref> at all-night revivals in and around Tokyo.<ref name="Sato"/> However, Suzuki was [[blacklist]]ed by the major studios and did not make another feature film until ''[[A Tale of Sorrow and Sadness]]'' (1977) ten years after ''Branded to Kill''. In the meantime, he subsisted on commercial and television work and writing books of essays.<ref name="Taylor"/><ref name="Bio">{{cite book
| last=Rayns
| first=Tony
| title=Branded to Thrill: The Delirious Cinema of Suzuki Seijun
| publisher = Institute of Contemporary Arts
| year = 1994
| isbn = 0-905263-44-8
| page = 46
| chapter = Biography
}}</ref>

''Branded to Kill'' first reached international audiences in the 1980s, featuring in various [[film festival]]s and retrospectives dedicated wholly or partially to Suzuki,<ref name="Edinburgh">{{cite web
| last = Rayns
| first = Tony
| title = Branded to Kill
| publisher = Cinefiles
| url = http://www.mip.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/cine_doc_detail.pl/cine_img/?15666%3F15666%3F1
| access-date = 2007-04-03
| archive-date = 2023-11-20
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20231120161619/https://research-it.berkeley.edu/news/retiring-museum-informatics-and-interactive-university-projects
| url-status = live
}}</ref><ref name="Bio"/><ref name="No borders">{{cite book|last=Schilling |first=Mark |title=No Borders, No Limits: Nikkatsu Action Cinema |publisher=FAB Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-903254-43-1 |url=http://www.fabpress.com/vsearch.php?CO=FAB080 |page=9 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081011075659/http://www.fabpress.com/vsearch.php?CO=FAB080 |archive-date=October 11, 2008 }}</ref> which was followed by home video releases in the late 1990s.<ref>{{cite book 
 |last=Hampton 
 |first=Howard 
 |title=Born in Flames 
 |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] 
 |year=2007 
 |url=https://archive.org/details/borninflamesterm00hamp/page/94 
 |isbn=978-0-674-02317-8 
 |page=[https://archive.org/details/borninflamesterm00hamp/page/94 94] 
 }} (Available [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0268/is_8_37/ai_54454977 online] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060720214617/http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0268/is_8_37/ai_54454977 |date=2006-07-20 }}.)</ref> It garnered a reputation as one of his most unconventional, revered Nikkatsu films and an international [[Cult film|cult classic]].<ref name="Rosenbaum">{{cite web
| last = Rosenbaum
| first = Jonathan
| author-link = Jonathan Rosenbaum
| title = Branded to Kill Capsule
| publisher = [[Chicago Reader]]
| url = http://onfilm.chicagoreader.com/movies/capsules/1357_BRANDED_TO_KILL
| access-date = 2007-04-03
| archive-date = 2007-09-29
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070929095928/http://onfilm.chicagoreader.com/movies/capsules/1357_BRANDED_TO_KILL
| url-status = dead
}}</ref><ref name="Cult">{{cite web
 |last=Schilling 
 |first=Mark 
 |title=Lord, bless this cinematic mess 
 |publisher=The Japan Times 
 |date=June 2001 
 |url=http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ff20010620a2.html 
 |access-date=2007-10-06 
 |url-status=dead 
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071208044738/http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ff20010620a2.html 
 |archive-date=2007-12-08 
}}</ref> It has been declared a [[masterpiece]] by the likes of film critic Chuck Stephens,<ref name="Stephens">{{cite web
| last = Stephens
| first = Chuck
| title = The Smell of Hard-boiled Rice: PFA screens a few (too few) of Seijun Suzuki's hard-to-catch B-movie powder kegs
| publisher = Cinefiles
| url = http://www.mip.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/cine_doc_detail.pl/cine_img/?15717%3F15717%3F1
| access-date = 2007-10-04
| archive-date = 2023-11-20
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20231120161512/https://research-it.berkeley.edu/news/retiring-museum-informatics-and-interactive-university-projects
| url-status = live
}}</ref> writer and musician [[Chris D.]],<ref name="Chris D"/> composer [[John Zorn]]<ref name="Zorn"/> and film director [[Quentin Tarantino]].<ref name="Tarantino">{{cite web
| last = Machiyama
| first = Tomohiro
| title = Tarantino Interview
| publisher = Japattack
|date=October 2004
| page = 2
| url = http://japattack.com/main/node/79
| access-date = 2007-04-13
| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120209142517/http://japattack.com/main/node/79
| archive-date=2012-02-09}}</ref> Writer and critic [[Tony Rayns]] noted, "Suzuki mocks everything from the clichés of yakuza fiction to the conventions of Japanese censorship in this extraordinary thriller, which rivals [[Orson Welles]]' ''[[The Lady from Shanghai|Lady from Shanghai]]'' in its harsh eroticism, not to mention its visual fireworks."<ref name="Rayns"/> Modified comparisons to the films of a "gonzo [[Samuel Fuller|Sam Fuller]]",<ref name="Branded to Thrill"/> or [[Jean-Luc Godard]], assuming one "factor[s] out Godard's politics and self-consciousness",<ref name="Edinburgh"/><ref name="Branded to Thrill"/> are not uncommon.<ref name="New York Times">{{cite web
| last = Blaise
| first = Judd
| title = Branded to Kill
| url = https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/139678/Branded-to-Kill/overview
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080522154721/http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/139678/Branded-to-Kill/overview
| url-status = dead
| archive-date = 2008-05-22
| department = Movies & TV Dept.
| work = [[The New York Times]]
| date = 2008
| access-date = 2007-04-11
}}</ref> In a 1992 ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' magazine article, film director [[Jim Jarmusch]] affectionately recommended it as, "Probably the strangest and most perverse 'hit man' story in cinema."<ref name="Rolling Stone">{{cite web
| last = Hertzberg
| first = Ludvig
| title = Innocent Influences, Guilty Pleasures
| publisher = The Jim Jarmusch Resource Page
| url = http://jimjarmusch.tripod.com/recommended.html
| access-date = 2007-04-13
| archive-date = 2007-12-15
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071215040447/http://jimjarmusch.tripod.com/recommended.html
| url-status = live
}}</ref> Jasper Sharp of the Midnight Eye wrote, "It is a bloody marvellous looking film and arguably the pinnacle of the director's strikingly eclectic style."<ref name="Sharp"/>

However, the workings of the plot remain elusive to most. Sharp digressed, "To be honest it isn't the most accessible of films and for those unfamiliar with Suzuki's unorthodox and seemingly disjointed style it will probably take a couple of viewings before the bare bones of the plot begin to emerge."<ref name="Sharp"/> As Zorn has put it, "plot and narrative devices take a back seat to mood, music, and the sensuality of visual images."<ref name="Zorn"/> Japanese film historian [[Donald Richie]] thus encapsulated the film, "An inventive and ultimately anarchic take on gangster thrillers. The script flounders midway and Suzuki tries on the bizarre for its own sake."<ref name="Richie review">Richie, Donald (2005). Ibid, p. 267.</ref> David Chute conceded that in labeling the film incomprehensible, "If you consider the movie soberly, it's hard to deny the bosses had a point."<ref name="Branded to Thrill"/> On a conciliatory note, Rayns commented "Maybe the break with Nikkatsu was inevitable; it's hard to see how Suzuki could have gone further in the genre than this."<ref name="Rayns"/>

After another unrelated 10-year hiatus, Suzuki and Nikkatsu reunited for the ''Style to Kill'' retrospective, held in April, 2001, at Theatre Shinjuku in Tokyo. It featured 28 films by Suzuki, including ''Branded to Kill''.<ref name="Volcano">{{cite web
 |last=Schilling 
 |first=Mark 
 |author-link=Mark Schilling
 |title=Journey to the center of the human volcano 
 |publisher=[[The Japan Times]] 
 |date=April 2001 
 |url=http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ff20010418a3.html 
 |access-date=2007-10-05 
 |url-status=dead 
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071208044733/http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ff20010418a3.html 
 |archive-date=2007-12-08 
}}</ref><ref name="Style lineup">{{cite web
| title = Line-up
| publisher = Seijun Suzuki Retrospective: Style to Kill
| year = 2001
| url = http://www.so-net.ne.jp/seijun/styletokill/lineup/index.html
| language = ja
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20010311152720/http://www.so-net.ne.jp/seijun/styletokill/lineup/index.html
| archive-date = 2001-03-11
| access-date = 2007-10-05
}}</ref> Suzuki appeared at the gala opening with star [[Annu Mari]].<ref name="Lounge">{{cite web
| last = Casey
| first = Chris
| title = Mari Annu
| publisher = Nikkatsu Action Lounge
| year = 2001
| url = http://shishido0.tripod.com/mari.html
| access-date = 2007-10-05
| archive-date = 2007-11-26
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071126100627/http://shishido0.tripod.com/mari.html
| url-status = live
}}</ref> Joe Shishido appeared for a talk session at an all-night, four-film screening.<ref name="Volcano"/> An accompanying ''Branded to Kill'' visual directory was published.<ref name="Style to Kill">{{cite book
| title = Style to kill : 殺しの烙印visual directory
| publisher = プチグラパブリッシング
| year = 2001
| language = ja
| isbn = 4-939102-21-1
}}</ref> The following year, the Tanomi Company produced a limited edition 1/6 scale "Joe the Ace"<ref name="Ace">"Joe the Ace" (エースのジョー ''Eisu no Jō'') is a popular [[nickname]] under which Shishido is known in Japan.<br />Schilling, Mark (September 2003). Ibid, pp. 128–130.</ref> [[action figure]] based on Shishido's character in the film, complete with a miniature [[rice cooker]].<ref name="Tanomi">{{cite web|script-title=ja:『エースのジョー』1/6アクションフィギュア |publisher=Tanomi |url=http://www.tanomi.com/shop/admin/html/items00467.html |language=ja |access-date=2007-10-06 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070919164945/http://www.tanomi.com/shop/admin/html/items00467.html |archive-date=September 19, 2007 }}</ref> In 2006, Nikkatsu celebrated the 50th anniversary of Suzuki's directorial debut by hosting the Seijun Suzuki 48 Film Challenge retrospective at the 19th [[Tokyo International Film Festival]]. It showcased all of his films. He and Mari were again in attendance.<ref name="Ryuganji"/><ref name="TIFF">{{cite web
| title = Seijyun Suzuki Retrospective
| publisher = [[Tokyo International Film Festival]]
| url = http://www.tiff-jp.net/en/lineup/supporting_project/seijyun_retrospective.html
| access-date = 2007-09-30
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070701015756/http://www.tiff-jp.net/en/lineup/supporting_project/seijyun_retrospective.html
| archive-date = 2007-07-01
}}</ref><ref name="Challenge linup">{{cite web|script-title=ja:鈴木清順 48本勝負 |publisher=Cinemavera Shinbuya |url=http://www.cinemavera.com/bc.html?mode=view&no=13 |year=2006 |language=ja |access-date=2007-10-05 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071008230456/http://www.cinemavera.com/bc.html?mode=view&no=13 |archive-date=October 8, 2007 }}</ref>
{{clear}}