, literally - "If you touch me, danger" is a

1966 Events January * January 1 – In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, ousting President David Dacko. * January 3 – 1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état: President Maurice Yaméogo i ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

ese film directed by

Yasuharu Hasebe was a Japanese people, Japanese film director best known for his movies in the "Violent pink" subgenre of the ''Pink film'', such as ''Assault! Jack the Ripper'' (1976 in film, 1976), ''Rape!'' (1976), ''Rape! 13th Hour'' (1977 in film, 1977) an ...

and based on the novel by Michio Tsuzuki.

Synopsis

Daisuke Honda, a war photographer in Vietnam, meets Yuriko Sawanouchi, a stewardess on his plane back to Japan. After drinking with her at a Tokyo bar, he becomes involved in saving Yuriko from assassination by female ninjas. When trying to rescue Yuriko from kidnappers, Daisuke discovers a group of foreigners are hunting for a World War II-era treasure hidden on an island by Yuriko's father.

Cast

Akira Kobayashi is a Japanese actor and singer. His nickname is . Biography Kobayashi attended Meiji University but left before graduating. He became an actor at Nikkatsu and made his film debut with "Ueru Tamashii" directed by Yuzo Kawashima in 1956. He so ...

as Daisuke Honda *

Chieko Matsubara is a Japanese actress from Nagoya, Spotted at a beauty contest sponsored by the Nikkatsu studio, Matsubara made her debut in 1961 at age 16 in ''Yoru no chōsensha''. Matsubara won popularity and became one of the representative actresses of th ...

as Yuriko Sawanouchi * Mieko Nishio as Fuyuko * Kozue Kamo as Yoshie * Tomoko Hamakawa as Natsuko * Akemi Kita as Akiko * Archie Hays, Jr. as American Gangster * Keisuke Noro as Man A * Shuntarō Tamamura as Man 1

Release

''Black Tight Killers'' was released on February 12, 1966. It was released in the U.S. during this era. It was released in DVD format in Japan in 2005.

Image Entertainment RLJ Entertainment (formerly Image Entertainment) is an American film production company and home video distributor, distributing film and television productions in North America, with approximately 3,200 exclusive DVD titles and approximately 340 ...

released the film on DVD in the United States. This DVD has the burned-in subtitles which were part of the film's original U.S. release.

Critical appraisal

Jonathan Crow of

Allmovie AllMovie (previously All Movie Guide) is an online database with information about films, television programs, and screen actors. , AllMovie.com and the AllMovie consumer brand are owned by RhythmOne. History AllMovie was founded by popular-cult ...

notes that the influence of Hasebe's mentor

Seijun Suzuki , born (24 May 1923 – 13 February 2017), was a Japanese filmmaker, actor, and screenwriter. His films are known for their jarring visual style, irreverent humour, nihilistic cool and entertainment-over-logic sensibility. He made 40 predo ...

can be seen in ''Black Tight Killers''. Like Suzuki, he uses the tropes of the gangster genre to create "a pop-art dreamscape" with "tail fins, flawless fashion, sudden and unexpected go-go dancing, cool jazz, and freakish violence". Hasebe's quirky use of gaudy color is singled out for comment in the review, which judges the film to be "wild, decadent fun". In his survey of the ''

pink film in its broadest sense includes almost any Japanese theatrical film that includes nudity (hence 'pink') or deals with sexual content. This encompasses everything from dramas to action thrillers and exploitation film features. The Western equiv ...

'' genre, Steve Fentone sums up ''Black Tight Killers'' with, "Chix with guns. What more do ya need?" Jasper Sharp writes that the plot is not especially impressive, but of Hasebe's visuals, he comments, "there is not a single individual sequence here that fails to deliver enough great dollops of saccharine-coated eye candy to satisfy even the most jaded visual gourmand". He concludes, "this simply magical film is a hoot from start to finish".

Bibliography

English

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Japanese

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Notes

{{Yasuharu Hasebe 1966 films Films based on Japanese novels Films directed by Yasuharu Hasebe Nikkatsu films 1960s Japanese-language films 1966 directorial debut films 1960s Japanese films