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This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Blistering performances.

Viewed on DVD. Restoration = ten (10) stars; score = three (3) stars; sound dubbing = (3) stars. Director Takashi Nomura's photo play places style way above substance. How the film looks seems paramount. All else is secondary, starting with the movie's title which is catchy but an illusion. The script is all over the place, but is basically trying to illustrate the lack of honor among gangsters as well as the stupidity within ranks of organized crime that reaches right to top management. (If you are a leader of a large, prosperous gang, would you risk your life by going into the field instead of just sending your foot-shoulder killers?) The Director seems obsessed with attributes (mostly invented by early American movie makers) of the mythical American "Wild West," and is striving hard to cast Japan of the middle 1960's as some sort of "Wild East." (Silly and nonsensical as it may seem.) Acting is no great shakes with the lead male actor (Jo Shishido) looking like he has a very bad case of the mumps (or a kilogram of cotton stuffed into his cheeks). This facial distortion does not add to his hit-man "ganger persona," but, instead, seriously distracts from his performance (apparently he underwent plastic to achieve this look!) The score apes music from contemporary Italian/Spanish westerns; it is out of place, usually irritating, and distracts from scenes when on the sound track. Sound effects are impoverished, seem to be an after thought, and often unintentionally humorous especially when male actors are always made to sound like they are wearing high heals, even when climbing gangways! Cinematography (wide screen, black and white), lighting, and editing are okay. Subtitles are about right for line readings, but often fail to translate signage even when the camera lingers on it. Yet another film that gives Yakusa (Gokudou) a bad name. WILLIAM FLANIGAN, PhD.

CHIPMUNK. The lead actor looks like a chipmunk. It needs too be said because that's all you see initially. Apparently it was a result of cheek surgery.Once you get past that this movie is a little treat. A Noir/Yakuza/Spaghetti Western mash-up that actually works. Like "The Killers" we are in the company of a two-man hit team. With a tricked-out car complete with a massive two-way radio they are much in demand from the Yakuza. Then the job goes wrong and it's time to get out of town. However there's a gal at the motel who complicates matters.The music is a combination of cool jazz (which could be in a contemporary Caine movie ) and a touch of the Morricones for the cowboy-like action sequences. It shouldn't work but it is really effective.

There was a lot going on in film world at the beginning of the 60′. The french critics (re)defined how we should see films: the idea that film is unlike literature or other art forms, and has rules of its own: visual narrative. Thus when we look today at the work of people like Hitchcock or Depalma, we can look at what they are doing, in the eye, although the stories they use to hang their visual ideas are (from a literature point of view) empty.Truffaut/Godard went further ahead and became filmmakers, playing and poking fun at American stereotypes, specially the gangster film (the hat, the smoke style basically).At the same time something even more interesting to me was happening in Italy, where western was being reworked, with irony and love, by a few Italians, led masterfully by Leone. The dollars films killed any chance we had to ever look at a classic western without clearly understanding how crooked is the whole Ford/Wayne concept of good/evil, and how prejudiced can pop culture actually be (Spielberg made recently a Ford inspired Bridge of Spies which, after the Iraq war, is still more offensive).The fun thing is that Leone, soaked in westerns and American pop culture (the guy grew literally in Cinecittà) got his lessons from Japan. The first dollars film is a remake of Kurosawa's Yojimbo.So this fun film closes the circle: a Japanese film which incorporates notions of American gangster films filtered through new wave french irony, and places the thing in a western context, taking the pace from Leone (and the music from Morricone), who himself went to Japan to start his adventure as a director. It really is fun just to get the references straight...

A Colt is My Passport (one of the most bad-ass titles ever?), starring Jo Shishido without his sunglasses, is the final, and definitely the best movie from the Nikkatsu Noir Eclipse box-set. It's directed by Takashi Nomura, by far the most obscure director on the set. Aside from this film, his only somewhat-not-that-obscure film is the Eastern- Western Fast-Draw-Guy (1961), which also starred Shishido and earned him the nickname Joe the Ace. As much as I'd like to see a spaghetti western made in Japan, it's unfortunately too obscure to be found.This movie, however, has a Morricone-like soundtrack that sounds like it should accompany a spaghetti western instead, with all the whistles and gunshots and everything that goes with it. But what's really surprising is that this music fits A Colt is My Passport perfectly, especially its final scene.Unfortunately, most of the plot is nothing to write home about, as the cool beginning and the orgasmically epic ending are simply too good for the middle portion of the film. The plot isn't really handled in an interesting way, and the token female character here is basically pointless (really, what purpose did she serve to the plot again?). So as I said, this film has to be seen specifically for the well-shot intro which shows the mob boss being assassinated, and the ending. Oh God, that ending. It's flawless. One of the best movie endings I've ever seen. Just... Holy sh*t. Those final 15 minutes more than make up for the cluelessness of the majority of the storyline.What makes the visuals of this film way better than the other ones from the same set is that it's not simply a copy of American noir photography. Nomura's movie is mostly bright grey and taking place during the day, with cool contemporary architecture and memorable set- pieces, like the tavern window that looks like a rifle scope frame. Technically, it's a superb film, and the final fifteen minutes are brilliant, but sadly the middle portion of the plot loses itself a little.