Massacre Gun (Minagoroshi no kenjû)
Directed by Yasuharu Hasebe
Written by Yasuharu Hasebe and Ryuzo Nakanishi
1967/Japan
Nikkatsu
First viewing/Amazon Prime
[box] “I know a thing or two ’bout killing and there ain’t no way to kill someone by accident. You got to work at killing.” ― Philip Elliott, Nobody Move[/box]
I think I’m getting maxed out on Nikkatsu hit man movies, even ones with striking visuals and an awesome score.
The plot is the same as usual. Perennial assassin Jo Shishido stars as Kuroda, an assassin for hire. A yakuza boss hires him to kill his own girlfriend. This he reluctantly does. Then it is all out war between Kuroda and his brothers and the boss’s gang.
I this was the first of these I had seen, I would have probably liked it more. In a graphically violent genre, this has some of the more gruesome gun deaths I remember. Composer Naozume Yamamoto does a great job with the blues-inflected jazz score.
