A Colt Is My Passport

A Colt Is My Passport
Directed by Takashi Nomura
Produced by Takeo Yanagawa
Written by Shūichi Nagahara
Nobuo Yamada
Shinji Fujiwara (Novel)
Starring Joe Shishido
Jerry Fujio
Chitose Kobayashi
Ryōtarō Sugi
Music by Harumi Ibe
Cinematography Shigeyoshi Mine
Edited by Akira Suzuki
Distributed by Nikkatsu
Release date
 February 4, 1967
Running time
 84 minutes
Country Japan
Language Japanese

A Colt Is My Passport (拳銃は俺のパスポート, Koruto wa Ore no Pasupōto) is a 1967 Japanese yakuza film directed by Takashi Nomura for the Nikkatsu Corporation. It is based on the novel Tobosha by Shinji Fujihara.[1]

It stars Joe Shishido as a hitman who, along with his parner, played by Jerry Fujio. The film was among Shishido's first starring roles, cementing him as a hardboiled action hero, and remains his personal favourite of the 170 films he made at Nikkatsu.

Perhaps Nomura's best known film, it was influenced by French New Wave filmmakers such as Jean-Pierre Melville, and by Sergio Leone-style Westerns.[2] Nomura's use of still shots in the opening sequence has been compared to manga art techniques.[3][4]

This film was made available in North America when Janus Films released a special set of Nikkatsu Noir films as part of the Criterion Collection, also including I Am Waiting, Rusty Knife, Take Aim at the Police Van, and Cruel Gun Story.[5]

Plot

Contract killer Shuji Kamimura (Joe Shishido) and his partner Shun Shiozaki (Jerry Fujio) are hired by yakuza boss Senzaki to eliminate a former partner, Boss Shimazu, who has embezzled from an international co-op between both men. Kanimura successfully assassinates Boss Shimazu at his home while meeting with Senzaki. Kanimura and Shun attempt to leave the country by plane, but are waylaid and kidnapped by Shimazu's men. After causing their car to crash (thanks to a specially-designed second brake behind the driver's seat that Shun had installed earlier), Senzaki's lieutenant Nozaki orders them to hide out at a truck stop, the Hotel Nagisakan, to wait for further instructions. Later that night, more gunmen under Shimazu's lieutenant, following information from fellow yakuza boss Tsugawa arrive to kill them, but do not find the duo as they have escaped by bribing one of the patrons to take them to another motel.

The next day, the chief of Shimazu's men attempts to kill the duo by intercepting them and ordering their ferry that was supposed to be their getaway vehicle to depart early; this fails when Kanimura and Shun show up in the truck they rode in from the previous night and run over the hitman, but the ferry has already left. Returning to the Nagisakan, Kanimura drugs Shun with a sleeping pill while Mina, the motel's waitress, directs him to a freighter captain willing to smuggle the three out of the country. However Tsugawa manages to broker a peace deal between Senzaki and Shimazu's son, who has succeeded his father as boss. The two settle their differences and decide to have Kanimura eliminated. Shun is later kidnapped at the Nagisakan, and when Mina arrives to pick him up and her belongings, is told by Senzaki by phone to have Kanimura meet with one of his henchmen. Later, Mina returns to Kanimura and tries to leave without Shun, but one of Senzaki's men arrives. Kanimura then negotiates to have Shun released in exchange for himself in three hours' time.

The exchange goes as planned, and the ship leaves without Kanimura, who arranges to meet with Senzaki and Shimazu at a landfill the next morning for his execution. Kanimura then spends the rest of the day planning on how to fight off the gunmen, spying on them testing various weapons on a special car with bulletproof windows, which Senzaki, Shimazu, and Tsugawa plan to use to safely watch Kanimura's execution. Kanimura then builds a bomb from several dynamite sticks and a stopwatch as a timer; he also digs a ditch in the landfill where he plans to hide it. Shortly after finishing the ditch, he is beset by hitmen and fends them off. The car carrying the Senzaki, Shimazu, and Tsugawa then moves to run him over with a gunman in the front trying to shoot Kanimura. Kanimura is hit several times but when the car is almost upon him, he dives into the ditch and plants the bomb on its belly, which soon explodes and kills all its occupants. An injured Kanimura then briefly surveys the carnage before limping away as the film ends.

Cast

  • Joe Shishido as Shuji Kamimura
  • Jerry Fujio as Shun Shiozaki
  • Chitose Kobayashi as Mina
  • Shoki Fukae as Funaki
  • Hideaki Esumi as Senzaki
  • Jun Hongo as Kaneko
  • Akio Miyabe as Miyoshi
  • Toyoko Takechi as Otatsu
  • Zenji Yamada as barge captain
  • Kanjuro Arashi as Shimazu
  • Ryōtarō Sugi as Shimazu's successor
  • Kojiro Kusanagi as hitman
  • Takamaru Sasaki as Otawara
  • Asao Uchida as Tsugawa
  • Zeko Nakamura as apartment receptionist

References

  1. ↑ Cowie, Peter; Elley, Derek (29 August 1977). "World filmography, 1967". Tantivy Press – via Google Books.
  2. ↑ Hardstaff, Matthew (2010). Berra, John, ed. Japan. Intellect Books. p. 277. ISBN 978-1-84150-335-6.
  3. ↑ Lee, Laura (8 November 2017). "Japanese Cinema Between Frames". Springer – via Google Books.
  4. ↑ Yau, Esther (28 April 2017). "Hong Kong Neo-Noir". Edinburgh University Press – via Google Books.
  5. ↑ "Eclipse Series 17: Nikkatsu Noir". The Criterion Collection. Retrieved 7 February 2016.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.