 |
| Images courtesy of Radiance Films |
Prolific Nikkatsu filmworker Seijun Suzuki had years ahead
of him before he transformed from a caterpillar into a butterfly with his
career defining (and ending) Branded to Kill. Already a master craftsman of the genre
thriller, having directed numerous pictures throughout the late 1950s through
the mid-1960s, Suzuki like many other Japanese filmworkers at the time cranked
out several film productions within the same year. In 1958, he began what turned into a quartet
of films starting with the black-and-white CinemaScope (a first for Suzuki)
diamond heist thriller Underworld Beauty. Originally released in the early 2000s on DVD
in the United States by Home Vision Media, the rights have since reverted to
Radiance Films who have put together a new 4K restored transfer supplied by
Nikkatsu with extensive extras including a short Suzuki film called Love
Letter released a year later.
A diamond thief named Miyamoto (Michitaro Mizushima) returns
to the underground sewer burial site of three diamonds following a prison
sentence in the hopes of helping out his old partner Mihara (Toru Abe) permanently
maimed by the heist. Their ex-boss Oyane
(Shinsuke Ashida) offers to work with a foreign buyer for the diamonds but in
actuality wants them for himself. During
the deal, gunmen appear on site and in a last-ditch effort Mihara swallows the
diamonds to prevent Oyane and his henchman from stealing them back but is
killed at point blank range, leaving behind a most prized corpse in the police
morgue. As Miyamoto tries to intervene
and protect his late friend’s wild and rambunctious sister Akiko (Mari Shiraki)
while fending off Oyane’s gangsters, crooked cops and even her jealous body
artist boyfriend Arita (Hiroshi Kondo).
A tense but sexy programmer from Seijun Suzuki when he was
still a reliable filmworker for Nikkatsu before evolving into an artist, Underworld
Beauty is a solid if not playful exercise in Japanese crime cinema. Featuring a jazzy score by Naozumi Miyamoto
and scenic black-and-white scope photography by Toshitaro Nakao, the feel of
the world is slick and handsome with consistently well-dressed characters
interacting within bars, police stations, alleyways and a startingly
claustrophobic finale. Heat plays a key
supporting role in this saga when Akiko is held for ransom in a heat bath while
later scenes have the central characters digging their way out of a steaming
hot furnace. For those expecting Suzuki
to wig out into wacky surrealism, things are kept surprisingly taut and on
track here with a thriller that subtly keeps twisting, turning and
intensifying.
Technically the first film credited to his preferred screen
name Seijun Suzuki rather than his born name Seitaro Suzuki, Underworld
Beauty with its sexy poster of a bikini clad Mari Shiraki toting a machine
gun is a most playful Nikkatsu programmer made by an eventual singular artist
still in the throes of finding his niche.
The first of four films for the director that year, this tense and surprising
yakuza heist thriller comes to blu-ray for the very first time in its worldwide
blu-ray premiere. Limited to 3,000
copies per the new boutique label limited run pressing MO, be sure and grab
this solid, classy, tight and surprisingly fun little genre thriller while you
still can. Suzuki enthusiasts will be delighted
while newcomers who aren’t quite ready for, say, Tokyo Drifter or even Zigeunerweisen,
will find much to enjoy with Underworld Beauty.
--Andrew Kotwicki
