I AM WAITING (1957)

俺は待ってるぜ

dir: Koreyoshi Kurahara

Nikkatsu

October 20, 1957

91 minutes B&W Nikkatsu scope

Yujiro Ishihara as Joji Shimaki

Mie Kitahara as Saeko

Hideaki Nitani as Shibata
Kojiro Kusanagi as Takeda

An early success in Nikkatsu's attempt to capitalize on the American crime noir market, this is also the first full film from director Koreyoshi Kurahara

Featuring Yujiro Ishihara and Mie Kitahara, who starred in 'Crazed Fruit' the previous year (and quite a few others together), it’s a decent little movie that grows as it goes along - from a mystery, to a love story, to a crime story, to a mystery again… but all in a good way.

As we often see in movies of these type, there are ‘improbable coincidences’, though they didn’t bother me as much as they might some others - I thought the story was fairly tight, the characters interesting, and even the fight scenes enjoyable. I was excited for the finale as it unfolded, and justly rewarded. 

When an ex-boxer meets a singer at night down by the pier they slowly begin to learn secrets that connect them to each other. But those secrets connect them even more in ways they don't yet realize, as they slowly unfold the truth....