Blackmail Is My Life

I really wanted to like this movie and for the first half hour it delivers. Interesting shots, flashbacks, cool stuff and innovative for the 1960s. Good backstory of the hero is shown, and interesting blackmail plot for the first 40 minutes. But then the writers and director lost focus, the plot got boring, and my urge was to turn the movie off. Now that's not a good instinct for a movie you want to like. I give it a 6 simply for the great beginning and interesting film style, but it could have been much better. Without this, the movie is below average, a 4 or 5. I do not recommend except for those interested in these kinds of movies, students, film buffs, etc. For most, this will be a big disappointment.

Blackmail Is My Life (1968)

Well, the bad guys (four men and one woman, all young and good looking) have a lot of fun, and carry a lot of poise. As rank amateurs they are lucky and, between racing around in their car, show a lot of cool style. It's 1968 in Japan, and it feels like maybe 1964 in the U.S., with people still wearing suits and looking good doing it.

Eventually, they get in over their heads, but we don't really worry at first. They often say vague things like, "We'll go ahead with out plan," but they never say what they are planning. And then the plan happens, and it's fast and jazzy, in a kind of extended television way. The plot is kind of interesting, digging into the underworld of Japan in this sideways fashion. And visually it's fun, very nice wide screen compositions in a wide range of gritty Japanese locations. There is even a dramatic, spare electric guitar score, perfect for the period.

The more serious and deadly this movie gets, the more it loses it's lighthearted flaws. There is clearly (to me) an influence from Bonnie and Clyde (the previous year) with romanticizing bad guys and extended violence. There is some real poignancy built in, as well. There are lots of night scenes and dramatic lighting, and this has a late film noir kind of quality, somehow, dark and brooding between action scenes. If you don't mind some Japanese camp aspects, this might really make your night. And just a heads up: the second half is easier to like in a conventional way, even if the first half is more original and excessive.

I noticed that IMDb lists this as a crime film AND a comedy. Well, there's nothing funny about the film--it's not at all a comedy. Instead, the film is about four low-lifes who make a career out of blackmailing people and fighting various mobs (who SHOULD have been able to smash them like bugs but somehow didn't throughout much of the film). For them, it all seems to be for the thrills and laughs--the money is secondary. However, the deeper the risk the greater the thrills--so they keep biting off more and more and more. You figure that eventually they'll get in way over their heads. And that is when their friend Zero (a black guy--which is quite unusual for a Japanese film) is killed, things look really bad for these bizarre anti-heroes.

While this film is quite different from the usual mobster film of the time, it still is a pretty ordinary crime drama. It was reasonably entertaining but no more. For those who like the genre, it's worth seeing--for others, probably not.

A fun movie. Discovering films like this is a constant source of knowledge for me. Knowledge that cinema, today, creeps forward rather than bounds ahead, as we insist on believeing. Just when you think that some director's style is an innovation you realize it's either a rip-off of, or is derived from, a school that is older and off the beaten track. Rather than criticize old movies for "reminding" us of new movies, it's better to see these movies in a historical context. And then we might finally get over our big old selves and see modern cinema in a more accurate perspective.

How can a movie about low-lives using blackmail to get out of their scummy life be so much fun, and still carry a message about social corruption and racism? First, by being restlessly energetic. All the new wave film techniques are used here, jump cuts, flashbacks, moving whirling hand-held cameras, sharp angles.. The movie never slows down except for a few delicious very physical love scenes, the complex story is told through the action. A movie that seems made in a rush and is much better for it.

The stylish 60s fashions, amoral but sexy protagonists, pop art photography and snappy music make this movie fun. It also makes it easier to take the extremely cynical message underlying the whole film. The antiheroes on display are like rats in a sewer (a dead rat is a recurring image). They hang on to the memory of the few happy moments they had, and keep reliving it. They think they blackmail for money, but they are really acting to get back at the Big guys, to prove that even scum can rise above their station. Their friendship and bond comes out of necessity and common experience. But their chance at the big lights is fleeting: going out with a famous actress for a moment may be thrilling, but our heroes do not belong in that world .

The film portrays a Japan ruled by corruption, where mavericks and half-breeds have to scrape to survive. Nobody is good, starting with all of the seedy blackmail "victims". The film has very dark and cynical outlook, but don't let that description phase you, this is also an incredibly fun film to watch, with action, humor and overabundant style. Most critics rank this movie as one of the director's lesser films. I think it deserves much better. Definitely recommended to those who love 60s gangster movies.