Watch Tokyo Joe For Free

Best movie of this year hands down!

Such a frustrating disappointment

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

A lesser film from Bogart to be sure and my rating is likely a little high because as a Bogart fan it's a treat to see a film from him I haven't seen before.Set in post-WWII Tokyo our protagonist Joe (Humphrey Bogart) is both a nightclub owner in Tokyo who left just before the attack on Pearl Harbor, but also a war hero who has just returned to see what has become of his club and his friend Ito who he left in charge. He is stunned to learn that the wife he left behind and who had been reported as dead is both alive and remarried with a young daughter. In order to extend his stay in Japan and try and convince his wife to return to him Joe becomes involved in a shady business venture with Baron Kimura (Sessue Hayakawa). This as a result puts Joe in the middle between the Japanese underworld and the American authorities.Although I enjoyed seeing Bogart on screen again it's neither a great part nor a particularly strong performance although he as usual has a powerful presence in his scenes and that's enough for me. The other performer of note is Sessue Hayakawa (Bridge on the River Kwai), who isn't really given a lot to do but does very effectively project his characters menace.The film's formula is somewhat derivative of other Bogart films and his roles in those films, the most obvious parallels can be found with Casablanca. To begin with both characters are night club owners in exotic locales, both present a cynical front but are heroic and both are separated from the woman they once loved.Although filmed at least partially in Japan we don't see a lot of the country, we are presented with some interesting Japanese culture which includes a few brief martial arts scenes as well as the Japanese language. This may not seem very usual today, but the film was made very shortly after the war.The co-operation of the American authorities likely contributed to their favorable portrayal. The portrayal of the Japanese is mixed.

This is a Humphrey Bogart movie you don't often hear about. I found it to be interesting and believe it or not I think better than some of his earlier movies. Joe Barrett(Bogart)has turned in his Army clothes and returns to post WWII Tokyo to check on a bar that he co-owns; and to check on his wife Trina(Florence Marly), who has since divorced him and married an important man in Tokyo, Mark Landis(Alexander Knox). Joe ends up getting involved into smuggling exiled criminals back into Japan. Well photographed. A touching relationship between Bogart and the young Lora Lee Michel, who plays Trina's daughter. Other players include: Sessue Hayakawa, Jerome Courtland, Teru Shimada and Hideo Mori.

"Tokyo Joe" takes place in post WWII Tokyo, at a time when the city was still under marshal law and controlled by the American occupation forces.Joe Barrett (Humphrey Bogart), an ex pilot returns home to Tokyo. He goes to his now closed nightclub, "Tokyo Joe's" which he owned and operated with his partner Ito (Teru Shimada). Barrett learns from Ito that his wife Trina (Florence Marly) whom he believed to be dead, is alive and living nearby.Barrett rushes to meet her only to discover that she has divorced him and re-married businessman Mark Landis (Alexander Knox). Determined to win her back, Barrett looks for ways to extend his 60 day visitor's visa.Ito brings him to local Japanese "businessman", Baron Kimara (Sessue Hayakawa) who offers to finance a small freight airline which will carry food delicacies, such as frozen frogs into Japan for export abroad. When Barrett declines the offer, Shimara reveals that Trina had made propaganda broadcasts during the war for the Japanese. Trina explains that she had been coerced into making the broadcasts because the Japanese had taken her daughter from her. She tells Barrett that the seven year old Anya (Lora Lee Michael) is really his daughter.In order to be allowed to remain in the country, Barrett decides to accept Shimara's offer and hires two American crewmen, Danny (Jerome Courtland) and Idaho (Gordon Jones) to fly the airplane. Several shipments of frozen frogs later, Barrett suspects that Shimara is about to smuggle Japanese war criminals into the country. To ensure that Barrett carries out the mission, Shimara kidnaps Anya and..............................This was Bogart's second film made by his Santana production company for release by Columbia following the end of his Warner Bros. contract in 1948. Bogey gives his usual excellent performance although his ju-jitzu match (courtesy of stunt men) with Ito, is a little hard to imagine. Sessue Hayakawa had been around films since the early silents, but is probably best remembered for his role as the camp commandant in "The Bridge on the River Kwai" (1957). Alexander Knox who usually played sophisticated villains, is wasted here as Landis.Entertaining, but not among Bogie's best.

Several years ago I stumbled upon a 35 cent biography of Humphrey Bogart written shortly after his death. In it he comments on many of his films, including Tokyo Joe. "Utterly worthless picture" he noted. Many critics agree as they dismiss this piece of hokum about what happens when a former soldier returns to what was his "home town" before the war. Thing have changed. It is not the paradise it once was to him and it is certainly no "Rick's" Instead of "As Time Goes By" we hear "These Foolish Things," a better song but not nearly as famous.Tokyo Joe was made not long after Bogey had left Warner Brothers and it has more than a whiff of a "message picture" that strikes to find some meaning in postwar Tokyo. But like "House Of Bamboo" this film works not only as melodrama but as historical artifact of a period that is now forgotten. We don't think of the Japanese as a defeated power. Ever since the Honda Accord and the Toyota Camry started blowing away American competition we have thought of the Japanese as a superpower economically, not as a crippled defeated country. This film captures a mood that is rarely expressed in movies and it captures it with rather high production values. The rest of the cast isn't much but they play it straight and thus Tokyo Joe stands up even better after the initial viewing. The DVD transfer is very good and it remains a worthy addition to the Bogart canon.