Branded to Kill
These days I have been awfully busy. Two days ago I started working from roughly 11am, went to class in the middle and watched half of a movie for dinner, but then continued until 1am in the morning when I finally got done with that part. Yesterday, after working again from 11am to about 4pm, I finally decided to take the rest of the day “off” to organize my life, but since there are several problems I have not been able to solve, I couldn’t sleep well.
The reason why I am watching these movies despite a relatively busy schedule is the Netflix-expiration effect. Now that I don’t have Netflix anymore, I started watching movies on Hulu, where Criterion has uploaded all of their movies to. (Amazing, really. I am seriously contemplating getting Hulu Plus now.) Every week they have a bunch of new movies which are free, and these particular films are going to be taken down soon.
This “stress” about wanting to watch these movies is sometimes a blessing in disguise. “The Killing of a Chinese Bookie” was brilliant, “Monsieur Verdoux” was too, but the biggest surprise was “Branded to Kill”. Nobody ever recommended it to me, I watched the film solely based on the fact that it is in the Criterion Collection. We all know that they have a few awful films in their line-up (“Un Conte de Noel” anyone?) but just like “Metropolitan”, my gut feeling told me that I want to see this. Indeed, it was right.
“Branded to Kill” was extremely controversial at its time, and its director is mentioned in the same line as David Lynch when it comes to craziness and absurdity. Personally, I don’t think the comparison holds that much. Suzuki is not that absurd, in fact his stories are absolutely entertaining, and the characters make perfect sense within their world. Most of all, I am impressed by his Japanese noir style. It’s so amazingly 60’s, somewhat avant-garde and reminiscent of French films like “Alphaville” and “Irma Vep”. Everybody is looking extremely stylish, and despite the misogyny (I accept that given the age of the film) every scene with a woman is hauntingly erotic. This is essentially a film noir Nouvelle Vague mix in which, of course, everybody dies at the end.
I think that “Branded to Kill” is a black comedy. There is this scene in which the main character sleeps with his wife, and they are shown copulating literally anywhere – on the staircase, in the bathroom, on the floor. And in-between these scenes, Suzuki presents these short shots of the neat, empty bed in bird’s view, clearly indicating that they never actually have sex here. I thought it’s these details that make the film really amusing.
Suzuki appears to be extremely beloved amongst critics, as it is not hard to find essays, analyses and fansites about his movies. As for me, I might already become a fan too – at least “Branded to Kill” was a lot of fun. I might be biased due to my immense love for butterflies, but even without that the film is a weeaboo-must-watch. I mean come on – Jim Jarmusch loves him.