BLACK TIGHT KILLERS (1966)

(俺にさわると危ないぜ)

dir: Yasuharu Hasebe

Nikkatsu

February 12, 1966

86 minutes Color Nikkatsu scope

Daisuke Hondo ...... Asahi Kobayashi
Yoriko Sawanouchi ...... Chieko Matsubara
Fuyuko ... Mieko Nishio
Yoshie ...... Kozue Kamo
Natsuko ... Tomoko Hamakawa

From Wikipedia:

Black Tight Killers (俺にさわると危ないぜ, Ore ni Sawaru to Abunaize), literally - "If you touch me, danger" is a 1966 Japanese film directed by Yasuharu Hasebe and based on the novel 三重露出 by Michio Tsuzuki.

Daisuke Honda, a war photographer in Vietnam, meets Yuriko Sawanouchi, a stewardess on his plane back to Japan. After drinking with her at a Tokyo bar, he becomes involved in saving Yuriko from assassination by stylish, female ninjas. When trying to rescue Yuriko from kidnappers, Daisuke discovers a group of foreigners are hunting for a World War II-era treasure hidden on an island by Yuriko's father.

Jonathan Crow of Allmovie notes that the influence of Hasebe's mentor Seijun Suzuki can be seen in Black Tight Killers. Like Suzuki, he uses the tropes of the gangster genre to create "a pop-art dreamscape" with "tail fins, flawless fashion, sudden and unexpected go-go dancing, cool jazz, and freakish violence". Hasebe's quirky use of gaudy color is singled out for comment in the review, which judges the film to be "wild, decadent fun".

In his survey of the pink film genre, Steve Fentone sums up Black Tight Killers with, "Chix with guns. What more do ya need?" Jasper Sharp writes that the plot is not especially impressive, but of Hasebe's visuals, he comments, "there is not a single individual sequence here that fails to deliver enough great dollops of saccharine-coated eye candy to satisfy even the most jaded visual gourmand". He concludes, "this simply magical film is a hoot from start to finish".