Blackmail Is My Life
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

, also known as ''Blackmail Is My Business'', is a 1968 Japanese crime film directed by
Kinji Fukasaku was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. Known for his "broad range and innovative filmmaking," Fukasaku worked in many different genres and styles, but was best known for his gritty yakuza films, typified by the ''Battles Without Honor ...
.


Plot

Shun Muraki is a low-level blackmailer who specializes in extorting money from prosperous Tokyo businessmen by threatening to reveal their crimes and indiscretions. His crew includes the former
yakuza , also known as , are members of transnational organized crime syndicates originating in Japan. The Japanese police and media, by request of the police, call them , while the ''yakuza'' call themselves . The English equivalent for the ter ...
member Seki, the failed boxer Neguchi (nicknamed "Zero"), and the alluring Otoki. They regularly meet in their hideout in the back of a restaurant and follow the three rules of blackmail: don't make any new friends, don't push too hard, and never hit the same mark twice. Shun Muraki finds his way into the business when he overhears that his boss at the restaurant where he waits tables is selling fake whiskey. After being beaten for not promising to stay silent he blackmails the source of the fake alcohol for 100,000 yen. They follow up this success by kidnapping a gangster who runs a brothel that films its clients to blackmail them and the blackmailers force him to give up all of the film reels in exchange for his life. One of the reels features popular actress Natsuko Mizuhara, whom Shun pressures into becoming his lover by threatening to release the film. Zero's father is found floating in
Yokohama Bay is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of T ...
and the police suspect murder, noting the amount of water in his lungs and drugs found in his system. Zero knows that his father was using drugs at the beach and Seki tells them that the drug traffic there is controlled by the Nagamisawa family led by Nagamisawa and his lieutenant Komori. Zero beats up the man who killed his father and they learn about an upcoming drug deal involving Nagamisawa. Shun's crew ambushes the deal with Molotov cocktails but the money accidentally gets burned. Kosuke Endo, a loan shark with millions in industrial loans, is shot at by a man with one gold tooth while leaving a meeting with political mastermind Shinzo Mizuno. Shun saves Endo and Endo tells Shun that he owes him. Newspaper reporter Hiroshi Miyake and Goro Okunaga, an old acquaintance of Shun, believe that the attack was planned by Shinzo Mizuno to send a warning. Okunaga explains that Endo contributed 700 million yen to the campaign of the Conservative Party Prime Minister at the last minute to ensure his election and in return demanded a written statement known as the Otaguro Memorandum which could force the resignation of Prime Minister Shimizu. Endo uses the memorandum to extort money as well as protect his own life and Shun's crew plans to get the memorandum for themselves. Shun visits Endo, who explains that he knows it was only a warning because the memorandum would be leaked if he were to die. Shun threatens that he will find Endo's weakness and force him to hand over the memorandum. Later that night Zero spies on Endo's residence but is caught by the man with the gold tooth and beaten to death. Natsuko tells Shun that she is leaving him because she received a marriage proposal from the president of the Showa department store. Seki feels overwhelmed by the odds against them and decides to stop being a blackmailer. Shun and Otoki allow him to run the restaurant instead. Shun and Otoki kidnap Endo and threaten to burn him alive, forcing him to hand over the memorandum. They call Shinzo Mizuno from a payphone and demand 100 million yen in exchange for the memorandum. Overcome with excitement, Shun and Otoki make love in the car. Shun gives Otoki the memorandum and tells her to give it to Okunaga, who has newspaper connections. Okunaga tells Otoki that Endo has been arrested for forging the documents he used to expose others and tries to destroy the memorandum out of fear of the overwhelming odds against them but Otoki insists that it is real and believes that the newspapers are in on the conspiracy. Shun goes to the place designated for the exchange in front of the National Theatre at 4:00 p.m. but notices a newspaper headline that Endo was arrested for forgery and gives up in frustration. He nonchalantly walks away but as he is crossing the street he is stabbed in the stomach by an unknown man. Shinzo Mizuno, who has been watching from his car, tells his driver to drive away as Shun bleeds to death in the busy crosswalk.


Cast

*
Hiroki Matsukata , better known by his stage name , was a Japanese actor. He was the son of ''jidaigeki'' actor Jūshirō Konoe and actress Yaeko Mizukawa and has a younger brother, Yūki Meguro, who is also an actor. With ex-wife actress Akiko Nishina he had t ...
as Shun Muraki * Tomomi Sato as Otoki *
Hideo Murota was a Japanese actor who specialized in playing villains and tough guys. In 1957, he signed a contract with Toei Studio and appeared in over 1000 films. He won the Best Supporting Actor award at the Yokohama Film Festival for his role in '' Shi ...
as Seki * Akira Jo as Neguchi, also known as "Zero" * Kenjiro Ishiyama * Tetsuro Tamba *
Shinjirō Ehara was a Japanese actor. Ehara joined Toei Company and began his acting career with"Nagurikomi Nijyuohachinin shu". In 1957, he won Elan d'or Award for Newcomer of the Year. He died on 27 September 2022, aged 85. Selected filmography Film *''Jun' ...
* Yusuke Kawazu * Bin Amatsu *
Ryōhei Uchida was a Japanese ultranationalist political theorist, Pan-Asianist, and martial artist, active in the pre-war Empire of Japan. Biography Uchida was born in Fukuoka prefecture. He was the son of '' Shinto Muso-ryu'' practitioner Uchida Ryōgorō ...
as Kito *
Eriko Sono is a feminine/neutral Japanese given name. Possible writings Eriko can be written using different kanji characters and can mean: *恵梨子, "blessing, pear, child" *恵理子, "blessing, reason, child" *絵里子, "picture, hometown, child" *絵 ...
*
Torahiko Hamada Torahiko is a masculine Japanese given name. Possible writings Torahiko can be written using different combinations of kanji characters. Some examples: *虎彦, "tiger, elegant boy" *虎比古, "tiger, young man (archaic)" *寅彦, "sign of the t ...
*
Yoko Mihara Yoko may refer to: People * Yoko (name), a Japanese feminine given name; variants include Yōko and Yohko * Yoko Gushiken (具志堅 用高, born 1955), Japanese professional boxer * Yoko Taro (横尾 太郎, born 1970), Japanese video game di ...
*
Keiji Takamiya Keiji (けいじ, ケイジ) is a Japanese given name usually used for males. Meaning varies depending on the kanji characters used. Possible writings Common kanji used include: * 啓司 * 啓治 * 圭二 * 圭司 * 慶次 * 慶治 * 敬二 * ...
*Shiro Amakusa *
Sakae Umezu Sakae may refer to: Places in Japan * Sakae, Chiba (Japanese: 栄町; ''sakae-machi''), a town in Chiba Prefecture * Sakae, Niigata (Japanese: 栄町; ''sakae-machi''), a town in Niigata Prefecture * Sakae, Nagano (Japanese: 栄村; ''sakae-mura'') ...
* Hiroshi Hijikata * Shiro Kitamachi * Kosaku Okano * Keijiro Morozumi * Nigori Miki * Nami Katsura * Jun Kajima * Ryusuke Kita * Sonosuke Oda * Kenji Sonoda * Kentaro Imai * Tadayuki Okamoto * Hideto Nakagawa * Sataro Taki * Shuichi Maka * Terumitsu Kawashima * Daisuke Makako * Akie Kokubu * Shotaro Oshima * Hideaki Komori * Sukeyuki Sawada *
Shigeru Amachi was a Japanese actor. He appeared in more than 120 films from 1953 to 1984. Career Amachi joined the Shintoho studio as one of its "New Face" actors of 1951 and established himself in action and jidaigeki films. He gained fame for the nihilist ...


Production

Director Kinji Fukasaku and three writers wrote the film in a hotel in just one weekend. Although Fukasaku went unaccredited for his part in the writing. In the North American release's
liner notes Liner notes (also sleeve notes or album notes) are the writings found on the sleeves of LP record albums and in booklets that come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or the equivalent packaging for cassettes. Origin Liner notes are desc ...
,
Patrick Macias Patrick Macias (born 1972 in Sacramento, California) is an American author and co-author of several titles on pop culture fandom, specifically relating to Japanese culture and culture in America. Macias is also a correspondent for NHK World Te ...
writes that
Sadao Nakajima is a Japanese film director and screenwriter (born 8 August, 1934) known for his work in yakuza films and jidaigeki. Career Born in Chiba Prefecture, he attended Hibiya High School and then the University of Tokyo before joining the Tōei studi ...
's 1966 film ''893 Gurentai'' was an influence; with Fukasaku writing the role of Shun specifically for its actor Hiroki Matsukata. Fukasaku originally shot the final death scene in Ginza himself, hidden in a car in order to capture real reactions from the public. But the footage lacked drama and intimacy, and the scene was re-shot with Hiroki Matsukata purposefully staggering towards the crowds to unsuccessfully entice a reaction. John Berra writes that Fukasaku "takes his directorial inspiration from the French New Wave" and that the film's "third act was reportedly inspired by real-life real-estate swindles that involved
Kakuei Tanaka was a Japanese politician who served in the House of Representatives from 1947 to 1990, and was Prime Minister of Japan from 1972 to 1974. After a power struggle with Takeo Fukuda, he became the most influential member of the ruling Liberal ...
, who was then the Finance Minister of Japan, and would later become the nation's
Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...
, and the episodic structure of the film serves to illustrate how greedy even small-time operators were becoming in an era of economic growth." Berra also identifies a tribute to
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 ...
's cult classic ''
Tokyo Drifter is a 1966 ''yakuza'' film directed by Seijun Suzuki. The story follows Tetsuya Watari as the reformed yakuza hitman "Phoenix" Tetsu who is forced to roam Japan avoiding execution by rival gangs. Plot An old ''yakuza'' boss named Kurata decides ...
'' (1966), noting that the film's characters whistle its theme song. Both films' scores were written by the same composer, Hajime Kaburagi.


Critical reception

Macias wrote that Matsukata's performance as Shun helped lay the foundation for Fukasaku's protagonists to come; equal parts lovable and amoral, and "destined for oblivion."
Glenn Erickson Glenn Erickson is an American film editor and film critic. A graduate of the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, he started in the film industry in 1975 as an editor of low-budget films and later worked in minor technical crew capacitie ...
for
DVD Talk DVD Talk is a home video news and review website launched in 1999 by Geoffrey Kleinman. History Kleinman founded the site in January 1999 in Beaverton, Oregon. Besides news and reviews, it features information on hidden DVD features known as ...
wrote that ''Blackmail Is My Life'' "channels the spirit of rebellious anarchy seen in Jean-Luc Godard, filtered through America's '' Bonnie & Clyde''. Fukasaku adds a jumpy 'chaotic but formulaic' style that keeps it moving along, through a lot of crime clichés." In a different review for DVD Talk, Stuart Galbraith IV called the movie "An enjoyable but generally routine crime melodrama." He praised the film's highly stylized visuals, its black and white and tinted flashbacks and its freeze frames, and Kaburagi's musical score. But called the unbelievable and "pure macho male fantasy" relationship between Shun and Natsuko its biggest problem. After describing the various visual effects, Scott Tobias of
The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...
wrote that "An excess of style takes some of the coherency and sting out of ''Blackmail'', which is sometimes guilty of appropriating Godard-esque tricks for cool's sake." He referred to the film as inferior to
Nagisa Oshima NaGISA (Natural Geography in Shore Areas or Natural Geography of In-Shore Areas) is an international collaborative effort aimed at inventorying, cataloguing, and monitoring biodiversity of the in-shore area. So named for the Japanese word "nagisa ...
's similar ''
Cruel Story of Youth is a 1960 Japanese film directed by Nagisa Ōshima, starring Yusuke Kawazu and Miyuki Kuwano as teenage delinquents and lovers. It is Ōshima's second feature film and is known for its elements of Japanese '' nuberu bagu''. The film won the 1960 ...
''. In the 2010 book ''Japan'', John Berra writes that Fukasaku "integrates his stylistic sensibility within a recognizable social-economic milieu and comments on the corrupt underbelly of the economic boom" and describes the first half of the film as "bright, colourful, amoral fun" before the later development plot in the second half of the film.


Home video release

''Blackmail Is My Life'' was presented by the
American Cinematheque The American Cinematheque is an independent, nonprofit cultural organization in Los Angeles, California, United States dedicated exclusively to the public presentation of the moving image in all its forms. The Cinematheque was created in 1981 as ...
in 2002. They then released it on DVD in North America with Home Vision Entertainment on January 6, 2004.


References


External links

* {{Kinji Fukasaku 1960s Japanese films 1960s Japanese-language films 1968 crime films 1968 films Films directed by Kinji Fukasaku Films set in Tokyo Films about criminals Japanese crime films Shochiku films