The I've-seen-this-story-before script finds two brothers on the lam. One is a tough, handsome yakuza lieutenant, Tetsutaro "White Tiger Tetsu" Murakami (Hideki Takahashi), trying to keep his pimply younger brother, Kenji (Kotobuki Hananomoto), out of a life of crime and into art school. However, as the film opens, Tetsu is double-crossed and Kenji commits murder to save his older brother's life. They intend to flee to pre-war Manchuria (the film is set around 1926), but in a small port city lose their passage money to a con artist, Senkichi Yamano (Hosei Komatsu).

Penniless (Yeniless?), the two find work as laborers digging a large tunnel for the construction of a dam. Kenji becomes obsessed with sculpting a figure in the image of the boss's wife, Masayo (Hiroko Ito). Meanwhile, Masayo's perky younger sister, Midori (Masako Izumi), falls in love with Tetsu, though he keeps his yakuza tattoos (and therefore his true identity) tightly hidden under a shirt he never takes off.

Perhaps what's most interesting about Tattooed Life is just how cagily it is structured for Nikkatsu's mostly working-class audience. The brothers aren't accepted at the construction site at first, winning their respect only after Tetsu takes on foreman Tsunekichi (Nikkatsu/Suzuki regular Kaku Takashima) in a Quiet Man-type epic brawl. In the tradition of Hiroshi Inagaki's Tatsu (Doburoku no Tatsu), whose similar tale had been a big hit three years before, the working stiffs are the heroes, and their back-breaking work cut off from the rest of society bonds them together. Not surprisingly, one of the villains is a college-educated turncoat (Osamu Ezaki, another Nikkatsu staple).

Far too many Japanese movies are unfairly likened to American Westerns, but in this case the comparison is apt. The tunnel workers might just as well be cowboys herding cattle, there's an almost Western-style saloon and an old-time "wanted" poster turns up and is used to implicate Tetsu and Kenji in an act of sabotage.

But the vein of notable Suzuki films has pretty well been played out. More Suzuki films are available in the west on DVD and VHS than any other Japanese director expect possibly Kurosawa. Tattooed Life isn't exactly scraping the bottom of the barrel, but there isn't much directorially that stands out, either. Suzuki uses jump cuts for labored effect: for instance, a night shot of two docked boats jumps to daybreak with one of the ships now mysteriously absent. And, as usual for the director, bright splashes of color are used -- in this case a blood-red thunderstorm storm lights up the sky for the blazing climax -- but otherwise Suzuki's direction is no better than journeyman. He doesn't even work up much energy for the picture's singularly Oedipal tension between Kenji and Masayo.

Takahashi was a prolific (eight films a year) but not especially charismatic Nikkatsu star, and the most striking thing about the young man playing his brother is the actor's notably peculiar name. Sharp-eyed viewers will note the presence of genre star Seizaburo Kawazu playing his stock yakuza godfather character in a "guest star" spot, while Akira Yamauchi, the scientist in Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster, plays Masayo's hard-to-read husband. Stealing the film though is Komatsu's grifter. With his three-piece white tropical suit and bright red shoes, the actor is memorably slimy, coming off as a kind of Japanese Strother Martin. (He later moved to Toei, appearing in such films as Female Convict Scorpion: Jailhouse 41.)

Video & Audio

As with the other Suzuki titles in this package (Underworld Beauty, Kanto Wanderer), the transfers are near flawless, and probably look more pristine on DVD than they did in Japanese theaters when they were new. The 16:9 anamorphic transfer of the original Nikkatsu Scope (2.35:1) photography really brings out the best in the picturesque location work, and in Suzuki's penchant for primary, Day-Glo color for his action set pieces. The mono sound is good for the period. The optional English subtitles are a bit too contemporary at times, but are otherwise fine.

Extras

Alas, the only extra is a Suzuki filmography, a list also found on Home Vision's other Suzuki titles. This reviewer didn't get the liner notes by Ray Pride, but invites the reader to refer to Glenn Erickson's review here.

Parting Thoughts

Though entertaining enough as a program picture, most of Tattooed Life's imagination went into its fun main title design rather than its tired script. Suzuki doesn't rise above the material, but rather plods through it.

Stuart Galbraith IV is a Los Angeles and Kyoto-based film historian whose work includes The Emperor and the Wolf -- The Lives and Films of Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune. He is presently writing a new book on Japanese cinema for Taschen.