Branded to Kill (1967)
The film's story centers on Hanada, a.k.a. "No. 3 Killer," the third-best hit man in Japanese organized crime... (imdb)
Cast and Information
Directed By: Seijun Suzuki
Written By: Takeo Kimura, Hachiro Guryu
Starring: Jô Shishido, Hiroshi Chô, Koji Nambara, Annu Mari, Akira Hisamatsu, Isao Tamagawa, Hiroshi Minami, Franz Gruber, Tokuhei Miyahara, Iwae Arai, Hiroshi Midorikawa, Mariko Ogawa
AKA: Koroshi no rakuin
Country: Japan
Where to Stream
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Branded to Kill belongs to 51 collections
1. Criterion Collection (collaborative: moderated by caffe - 166 stars)
2. boobs (collaborative: moderated by Pickpocket - 51 stars)
3. Certified weird (collaborative: moderated by Dreamer - 46 stars)
4. They Shoot Pictures 1,000 Greatest Films (2008 revision) (collaborative: moderated by Scottathon - 39 stars)
5. They Shoot Pictures 1,000 Greatest Films (2010 revision) (collaborative: moderated by MMAlpha - 32 stars)
6. The Guardian's 1000 films to see before you die (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 30 stars)
7. They Shoot Pictures 1,000 Greatest Films (2014 revision) (collaborative: moderated by Jehan - 27 stars)
8. Full Female Frontal Nudity (Yes, Bush!) (collaborative: moderated by iceblox - 26 stars)
9. They Shoot Pictures 1,000 Greatest Films (2012 revision) (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 25 stars)
10. They Shoot Pictures 1,000 Greatest Films (2017 revision) (collaborative: moderated by iconogassed - 22 stars)
11. Criterion Collection (Blu-ray) (collaborative: moderated by epiphany - 20 stars)
12. They Shoot Pictures' Recommended Viewing (collaborative: moderated by Cinephile - 19 stars)
13. Best of criticker: Drama (collaborative: moderated by avgcrtckr - 18 stars)
14. Kinema Junpo 200 Greatest Japanese films (2009 list) (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 17 stars)
15. Japanese New Wave (collaborative: moderated by kangadoodoo - 16 stars)
16. They Shoot Pictures 1,000 Greatest Films (2013 revision) (collaborative: moderated by rant1229 - 16 stars)
17. They Shoot Pictures 1,000 Greatest Films (2011 revision) (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 14 stars)
18. They Shoot Pictures 1,000 Greatest Films (2020 revision) (public: djross - 14 stars)
19. Films available in HD (collaborative: moderated by kubricksucks - 13 stars)
20. TimeOut's 1000 films to change your life (collaborative: moderated by ppinocchio - 11 stars)
21. Cinema Discusso Yearly Consensus (2008) (public: PeaceAnarchy - 10 stars)
22. 1,000 Noir Films: They Shot Dark Pictures, Didn't They? (collaborative: moderated by lisa- - 9 stars)
23. Best of criticker: Crime (collaborative: moderated by avgcrtckr - 8 stars)
24. Yakuza (collaborative: moderated by Moribunny - 7 stars)
25. Cinema Discusso Movies of the Month (collaborative: moderated by ABUNCHOFCATS - 6 stars)
26. They Shoot Pictures 1,000 Greatest Films (2007 revision) (collaborative: moderated by Scottathon - 4 stars)
27. edkrak films to see (public: edkrak - 4 stars)
28. Alternatif Film Öneri Listesi (public: Ozancan - 4 stars)
29. Cinemascope (collaborative - 3 stars)
30. 501 Movie Directors (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 3 stars)
31. Best of criticker: Action (collaborative: moderated by avgcrtckr - 3 stars)
32. Criterion Collection (Blu-ray and 4K) (public: PepeCamello - 3 stars)
33. weird (public: ptkw - 2 stars)
34. Sight and Sound 2002 (Single Vote) (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 1 star)
35. Moviedrome: Mark Cousins (collaborative: moderated by Ag0stoMesmer - 1 star)
36. Cinetheque (public: allegreller - 1 star)
37. Yakuza films (collaborative: moderated by PerryStroika)
38. Chambara/Yakuza (collaborative: moderated by ForrestQ)
39. Versátil Home Video (collaborative: moderated by allegreller)
40. Arrow Video (collaborative: moderated by mattburgess)
41. Referenced in Zeroville (collaborative: moderated by iconogassed)
42. Cinemateca - Grandes Géneros: Disponíveis para o Noir (collaborative: moderated by pmpfe)
43. Available on Divicast (collaborative: moderated by Dunstan-xxx)
44. Foreign films on Divicast (collaborative: moderated by Dunstan-xxx)
45. Films to get (public: Scelsi)
46. Owned (BD) (public: bizarre_eye)
47. Nicolas Winding Refn's Top 10 Criterion Collection Films (public: TychoCelchuu)
48. Movies to See: Crime (public: Lord Moe)
49. Tom's Movies (public: tomwalsh)
50. Forrest Watch List (public: ForrestQ)
51. 100 years of film (public: mutter)
Browse the full list of collections
| Stars | User | Rating | |
| 5 |  |
backwardsuit | 81 83rd |
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Suzuki embraces cinema with loony abandon & a big pair of scissors. This definitely fulfills some kind of deconstructionist function & (unlike many) manages to avoid the pitfalls of hubris & come off timeless. Fresh anarchic sense of dark fun that actually opens up layers of ambiguous mood & subtext that constantly challenge you to reorientate & work with its abstract cartoony absurdities. It can feel like work but of the flexible & rewarding sort. I can't believe this is a peer to Le Samouraï.
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| 3 |  |
Magb | 95 94th |
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Absolutely bizarre, but with an internal logic that somehow manages to make sense. You can imagine the movie being really boring if it were told by a more conventional director, but since it's Suzuki, it's never even close to boring.
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| 3 |  |
eveelun | 84 90th |
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Bizarre, pulpy brilliance. It's deliciously twisted and insane, and is full of dynamic camerawork, editing, and story-telling.
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| 3 |  |
Mentaculus | 94 94th |
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Hallucinatory brilliance; probably Seijun's finest (and least accessible) film. A kind of existential nightmare and pulp art rolled into one.
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| 3 |  |
Barthalen | 82 86th |
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It's weird, cool, sexy, freaky, claustrophobic and moody. Unpredictable as well. Some wonderful imagery, some crazy editing and pacing (unfortunately making some scenes quite confusing), and it was over way too soon. Me likey.
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| 2 |  |
MartinTeller | 86 87th |
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What a cool freaky weird movie! Turns the gangster genre totally upside down and inside out.
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| 2 |  |
Spunkie | 50 40th |
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Anti filmmaking that is randomly funny if you can stomach it. I forgot the WTF count I uttered now and then. Stupidity of editing is especially worth mentioning, things simply jump around in a weird cause&effect relation. I'm not sure this brainhack of a film will stay with me though. Mind you it's exclusively for film nuts who's willing to consider it in a referential frame, otherwise even -so bad, it's good- won't hold it together.
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| 2 |  |
hehejaja | 50 24th |
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An outlandish extravaganza of kinky and dark wit mixed with a bizarrely roguish depiction of cartoonish violence. What seems to be a lustful play with genres, pop culture, postmodernism and the film medium itself is only periodically a pleasure to inhale - far too often, this coffee's dry and bland... It's rarely genuinely interesting or exciting, despite the stunningly imaginative use of cinematography and mise-en-scène
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| 2 |  |
Noblet | 80 70th |
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What a strange movie. An ordinary crime movie that just goes right off of the rails into crazy-land. I liked it a lot. It was very entertaining, with some good action, weird characters, and great black & white imagery. Quentin Tarantino must have loved this.
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| 1 |  |
Pickpocket | 8 82nd |
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Okay I understand why Suzuki got fired from the studio after this film, so bizarre... yet so awesome. The camera work and the editing is the real star of this film, it looks damn good. The acting is way over the top and downright bad a lot of the times. Yet delightful at the same time. If the women characters weren't constantly naked it would've bugged me more. This film is the kind of dream insane people have, totally surreal.
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| 1 |  |
Alex Watkins | 4 70th |
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Absurd comedy that somehow manages to position the third-ranked (I want to see the rankings body) killer in Japan - a rice-sniffing, bloodthirsty psychopath - as the epitome of cool. The plot is essentially Calvinball, but it's more or less an excuse for Suzuki to indulge in striking imagery, sexy femme fatales, and violence.
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| 1 |  |
Nathan S | 2 21st |
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When I first viewed this many years ago, I wasn't impressed, but I think I may feel differently now. Re-evaluation overdue.
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| 1 |  |
PeaceAnarchy | 66 18th |
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The delirious visuals and tone create quite a few great moments but it doesn't really come together as a whole. It's consistently confusing and gets rather tedious.
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| 1 |  |
twincinema | 80 75th |
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I love films where I am perpetually five minutes behind what's happening on-screen. I would not be surprised if this is Tarantino's favourite film.
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| 1 |  |
Detox | 85 79th |
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What is this? Some kind of James Bond-Film noir-satire? Maybe. But what it is for sure is one piece of creative movie making. Visually striking and absurd, "Branded to Kill" never failed to grab my attention.
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| 1 |  |
Obdurate | 85 80th |
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Big props for originality here. The editing is insane and takes it from what probably would have been a decent Yakuza/assassin movie and turns it into a batshit insane, weird, dream-like, incomprehensible mess... In a great way.
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| 1 |  |
Svengali | 42 23rd |
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The cinematography is so full of constant wit, I found the story quite hard to follow and I barely got the hang of it and usually just had a vague idea of what was happening. Lots of dazzling ideas and definitely one of the boldest gangster films ever, maybe not just gangster - the others are probably made by Suzuki as well. Repeated viewings will probably make me like it more but for now it all felt so... shallow, full of empty tricks...
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| 1 |  |
loc42 | 85 88th |
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Pure excess both in terms of plot and narrative. I think in an unconscious way it depicts the expenditure of excess in post WWII countries in a very violent way. Can be easily interpreted as a critique of war but you can simply enjoy it as an absurd ans stylized thriller.
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| 1 |  |
DesertPunk | 82 78th |
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I don't even know, man. I know I liked it. I think I loved it. For 90 minutes I was pretty much held captive in Suzuki's world as he broke every filmmaking rule I've ever studied, which makes Branded to Kill an extremely cathartic movie as well as an extremely well made one.
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| 1 |  |
moody mehdi | 92 56th |
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It seems Seijun Suzuki's genius was too hot for Nikkatsu to handle and the fact that he got fired for making this, is understandable. Any studio production,wont be exactly gung-ho bout a film like this, filled with symbols, innovations and abstractions. Dark, unsettling and visceral, this movie caught me completely off-guard. I could almost feel the character's alienation. Its a triumph of the style here.
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| 1 | donquixotic | 40 23rd |
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The horrible 60s visuals and editing combined with the horrible dialogue made it unwatchable
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| Average Percentile 65.59% from 710 Ratings |  |