Cruel Gun Story (1964) Review

“Cruel Gun Story” Theatrical Poster

Director: Takumi Furukawa
Cast: Jo Shishido, Chieko Matsubara, Tamio Kawaji, Shobun Inoue, Yuji Odaka, Minako Kazuki, Hiroshi Nihonyanagi, Hiroshi Kondo, Saburo Hiromatsu
Running Time: 87 min.

By Henry McKeand

In the 1960s, the Japanese studio Nikkatsu made a string of hard-edged crime thrillers that became known as “borderless action” films. They received this distinction because they borrowed from international influences, combining classic American noir and French New Wave gangster cool with elements of Japan’s own chambara samurai films to create an incendiary new subgenre. 

There’s a cold, uncaring cruelty in the Japanese crime cinema of the time that sometimes borders on sadistic. In a way, it was a sister movement to the then-burgeoning spaghetti western revolution taking place in Italy, and it was a precursor to the Italian Poliziotteschi films of the 70s. American noir could be vicious, sure, but it rarely reached the bloody heights of Nikkatsu’s 60s output. In fact, movies such as A Colt Is My Passport have more in common with the most nihilistic and hard-boiled American crime literature; it’s easy to imagine Jim Thompson and Donald Westlake getting a kick out of Joe Shishido’s countless son-of-a-bitch protagonists. Classic samurai films are talked about more today, but borderless action directors such as Takashi Nomura and Seijun Suzuki were on the cutting edge of the stylized, self-aware violence that has dominated genre cinema for over a half-century.

Takumi Furukawa was another such director, and he made his most enduring work in 1964 with Cruel Gun Story. It has all the trademark elements of a Nikkatsu gangster film, such as a no-frills plot and a modern ronin protagonist. Its basic setup, involving the heist of an armored truck carrying racetrack money, calls to mind earlier American noir classics like The Killing and Criss Cross. But while The Killing mixed formal risk-taking with clockwork execution and Criss Cross found suspense in the slow-burn, Cruel Gun Story revels in fast-paced thuggishness. The heroes and villains are virtually indistinguishable, and the “professionals” of the story are little more than petty, trigger-happy goons. This makes for an energetic, wild dog crime film that’s as cold-blooded as it is vital.

Joe Shishido plays Togawa, a man who is released from prison with the help of powerful gangsters, who in turn want him to hijack an armored truck. Togawa doesn’t like the risk, but his wheelchair-bound sister needs money, and so he agrees. He immediately sets about creating a plan destined to fail and assembling a team of men doomed to betray each other. It doesn’t take a movie buff to see that things won’t go smoothly, and the specifics of the misfortune aren’t necessarily surprising, but the script by Haruhiko Oyabu and Hisataka Kai is filled with enough fun detail to make up for any feelings of familiarity. 

The emotional core is also stronger here than in most Joe Shishido films. Like so many other gangster film icons, Shishido tended to play characters who were too cool and mean and unknowable to ever really connect with, but Togawa is a little different. His protective love of his disabled sister may sound like an emotionally manipulative character note, but it’s understated enough to contextualize his decisions without softening his rough edges. Thanks to the believable stakes and razor-thin possibility of redemption, it’s easy to get invested in Togawaa and the other “good guys.” This is all the film needs to satisfyingly stage its many gun battles and double-crosses.

While Branded to Kill and A Colt Is My Passport employed stylized, sometimes cartoonish violence, Cruel Gun Story lives up to its title by delivering several no-nonsense shootouts. The body count is high, and gunfire is as commonplace as the clanging of katanas in a samurai film. Furukawa knows how to create clear, arresting action scenes, and the relative realism is thrilling when compared to the heightened logic of some Nikkatsu films. Adding to the excitement is the lack of sentimentality; major characters are gunned down as unceremoniously as the nameless cops and cons who fill out the body pile. 

Still, the film is not for everyone. Your enjoyment will depend on your tolerance for calloused heroes and gritty outlaw detail. But for those who love the Yakuza stoicism of Takeshi Kitano or the cops-and-robbers romanticism of Michael Mann, Furukawa’s brand of borderless action is a no-brainer. While it’s not as flashy or eccentric as some of the better-known Japanese pot-boilers, Cruel Gun Story is a more than worthy entry in the Nikkatsu crime canon. 

Henry McKeand’s Rating: 7/10

We couldn’t locate a Trailer, so we located an “intro to the film” by Eddie Muller, by way of uploader Noir Fan, which we thought was a great pairing with the review you just read. Watch it below: