The Crimson Kimono
Directed by Samuel Fuller
Written by Samuel Fuller
1959/USA
Globe Enterprises
First viewing/Amazon Instant Video
[box] I hate violence. That has never prevented me from using it in my films. — Samuel Fuller[/box]
This is an entertaining police procedural with a bit of a message from the weird and wonderful Sam Fuller.
A stripper is gunned down in Little Tokyo. Partners and Korean War buddies Charlie Bancroft (Glenn Corbett) and Joe Kojaku (James Shigeta) of the LAPD are on the case. The stripper was planning a new Japanese-themed act to feature stripping off from a kimono followed by a battle between a samurai and a karate master. (I am not making this up!)
In connection with this, the stripper had a portrait painted of her in a red kimono. The investigation takes our detectives to the beautiful young artist who painted it. Naturally, both of them fall in love with her. She loves Det. Kojaku. Loyalty to his partner and doubts about her true feelings about the racial difference tear him apart.
The murder and several fistfights couldn’t look faker and some of the acting is not of the best. I don’t know why but neither these things nor the incredible plot hampered my enjoyment of the film in the least. Something about Fuller is just inherently fascinating to me. This one has lots of great scenes among the Nisei of Little Tokyo plus the courage to address the racial divide and to praise the valor of the Japanese-Americans who fought on the U.S. side in World War II and later. (The tagline is: YES, this is a beautiful American girl in the arms of a Japanese boy!).
James Shigeta is quite good as the boy in question. His manner reminds me of a Japanese Robert Mitchum.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNaxQ9CWX1Q
Clip – cinematography by Sam Leavitt
