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I, the Executioner



A man brutally murders a woman after forcing her to write the names of four others. As the murders pile up, the police investigate the links between the victims and how they may be connected to the suicide of a young boy in the same building. Directed by Tai Kato (By a Man's Face You Shall Know Him), a former apprentice of Akira Kurosawa better known for his yakuza films, I, the Executioner is a pitch black neo noir that makes the serial killer the central character. Sensationally photographed with claustrophobic close ups, Kato's film evokes both Hitchcock's Psycho and the films of Nagisa Oshima, while also prefiguring the Italian giallo.

LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY SPECIAL FEATURES:

• High-Definition digital transfer
• Uncompressed mono PCM audio
• Visual essay on Japanese serial killer films by Jim Harper
• Appreciation by filmmaker Kenta Fukasaku
• Trailer
• Newly translated English subtitles
• Reversible sleeve featuring original newly commissioned artwork by Time Tomorrow
• Limited edition booklet featuring new writing by Tony Rayns and a new translation of archival writing on the film
• Limited edition of 3000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings

Never thought I'd see this on blu ray––a favorite of mine, which has grown a lot in my mind over the last few years. A surprising film, made in the vein of Psycho and Peeping Tom, with a soundtrack by a Japanese equivalent of the Swingle Singers, and a kind of unique sympathy for the kind of downtrodden desperation that turns everyday people into vengeful murderers. Amazing to see this on blu ray!

This is one of those Japanese genre movies where the visual inventiveness is so constant that it's almost exhausting. It's also very, very bleak and unpleasant--a real vision of hell. Needless to say, I recommend!

Of all the Japanese films I've seen in my life, this is only surpassed by Ichikawa's Fires on the Plain as the most unrelentingly bleak film I've seen. It's take-no-prisoners filmmaking and I applaud Fran for releasing it but while I'm glad to have seen it and would recommend it as well, I don't see myself returning to it often enough to warrant me buying the disc. Something like Revenge offers some sort of remove because of its historical setting, Henry Portrait of a Serial Killer has some black humor to offset the bleakness, but I The Executioner offers no respite. That's not a knock against the film but anyone going into the film expecting to be entertained is going to be disabused of that notion very quickly. I was spellbound and appreciated how the film challenged my assumptions and turned them upside down, forcing me to re-evaluate what I'd seen in the first half. I can count the American noirs that are this uncompromising in their hopelessness on one hand, if that. If I admire the film more than loving it, I want to say thanks to Radiance though for introducing me to Tai Kato. I'm looking forward to seeing his other films.

By a Man's Face Shall You Know Him



A community struggles against immigrant gangs in the ruins of postwar Tokyo. Only doctor Amamiya (real-life ex-yakuza Noboru Ando) can save them, but he had enough fighting in the war. His pacifism is severely tested by the gangs' increasingly outrageous taunts and when his neighbours decide to take matters into their own hands, Amamiya is forced to take action. The consequences prove to be much more far-reaching than he could ever foresee. With a story spread across three time periods, Tai Kato's ambitious revision of the yakuza movie was one of the first films to tackle the taboo subject of Japan's Korean nationals, greatly influencing later directors such as Kinji Fukasaku and Takashi Miike.

LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY SPECIAL FEATURES:

• High-Definition digital transfer
• Uncompressed mono PCM audio
• Visual essay on Noboru Ando by Nathan Stuart
• Appreciation by filmmaker Kenta Fukasaku
• Trailer
• Newly translated English subtitles
• Reversible sleeve featuring original newly commissioned artwork by Time Tomorrow
• Limited edition booklet featuring new writing
• Limited edition of 3000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings

Great Cineoutsider review of I, the Executioner that contains spoilers for the film's second half but Slarek tells you where they begin. But this is definitely a film best experienced cold as I did.

Trying to survive in the ruins of post-war Japan, Kawada (Noboru Ando, By a Man’s Face Shall You Know Him) and Tsukada (Asao Koike, Sympathy the Underdog) run afoul of the military police after stealing valuable copper wire. Kawada is arrested and sent to prison, but Tsukada uses their gains to start a yakuza gang. Facing violent inmates and a cruel warden (Tomisaburo Wakayama, Big Time Gambling Boss), Kawada vows to escape and stop his former partner. Tai Kato directs this epic prison story with characteristic visual flair, while gangster-turned-actor Ando delivers a stunning performance charged with real-life gravitas. As an examination of the deep scars of wartime, this genre classic is also a clear precursor to Kinji Fukasaku’s epoch-making Battles Without Honour and Humanity series.

LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY SPECIAL FEATURES

High-Definition digital transfer
Uncompressed mono PCM audio
Appreciation by critic and programmer Tony Rayns (2024)
A visual essay on Japanese prison films by author Tom Mes (2024)
Original trailer
Newly translated English subtitles
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Time Tomorrow
Limited edition booklet featuring new writing by Ivo Smits and an archival interview with Noboru Ando by Mark Schilling

Interesting that these Tai Katō releases end up being basically a boxset (three sequential spines and even an identically sized book) just without the box

Watched By A Man's Face tonight and have mixed feelings about it. The film is billed as a somewhat revisionist Yakuza film, and that I guess I can see. The film has flashes of real beauty, with a beautifully shot black and white flashback sequence, some really gruesome bloody scenes, and many scenes which are seemingly domestic in nature, and have an Ozu-style ground level POV. While I loved a lot of the set-up, I'm really not sure the film quite landed it's points for me. The Korean population is depicted poorly (the film is advertised as one that tackle the taboo subject of Japan's Korean nationals) but it doesn't exactly portray them in a flattering or particularly complex light. There are individuals within the film that are treated with delicacy and nuance, but in the shadow of the primary plot, I'm not sure a bigger anti-xenophobic point is well made.

Beyond the politics of the film, I wish we had spent more detail or time with some of our main characters. Amamiya is supposedly dangerous, but it's far into the film where we are actually given a sense of how dangerous he can be. Choi is another character that is has a great set-up, but the whole point about him and Amamiya having paths that cross kind of came together a bit awkwardly for me. Wanted to like it more than I do, but sure I will chew on it for a few days.

Drucker wrote: Sat Apr 20, 2024 1:14 am The Korean population is depicted poorly (the film is advertised as one that tackle the taboo subject of Japan's Korean nationals) but it doesn't exactly portray them in a flattering or particularly complex light.

I found this a strange claim to make as well, since Japanese anti-Korean racism was a recurring theme of nuberu bagu cinema, and Oshima especially had a field day with it. So my reaction to this film was "ah, here's some of that Japanese racism I've heard so much about." The Koreans in this film are demonized villains making things difficult for the poor, decent properly Japanese criminals. I don't see any nuanced critique of that surface racism.

Kato's style is still fascinating to explore, and I look forward to seeing more of his work.

I suppose I must have misread the one Oshima film I watched (Cruel Story Of Youth, and maybe was just projecting my own politics on to it (it has been years). And maybe I was just assuming that the Japanese film makers would have necessarily critiqued the racism pervading Japan at the time!

Zedz was saying the Japanese New Wave, and Oshima in particular, were critiquing anti-Korean racism. It's the entire polemic behind Oshima's Death by Hanging for example.

As far as I know, the first critique of poor treatment of Korean Japanese residents can be seen in Hiroshi Shimizu's Arigatou-san. Presented subtly enough to get past censors, but pretty clear nonetheless (even only as a side issue).

Mr Sausage wrote: Fri Apr 26, 2024 3:19 pm Zedz was saying the Japanese New Wave, and Oshima in particular, were critiquing anti-Korean racism. It's the entire polemic behind Oshima's Death by Hanging for example.

Okay thank you, I thought that was the case. Appreciate the clarity.

Mr Sausage wrote: Fri Apr 26, 2024 3:19 pm Zedz was saying the Japanese New Wave, and Oshima in particular, were critiquing anti-Korean racism. It's the entire polemic behind Oshima's Death by Hanging for example.

Three Resurrected Drunkards is also all about it.

And doesn't it crop up in Sing a Song of Sex, where one character literally lectures everyone, viewer included, on how the Japanese originally migrated from the Korean peninsula (an idea I don't think there's any evidence for one way or the other), making Japanese racial superiority complete junk?

Tokijiro: Lone Yakuza

Weary of the rigid codes of the underworld, gambler Tokijiro (Kinnosuke Nakamura, Goyokin) wanders Japan in search of freedom. But escape proves to be impossible when an obligation to a gang boss leaves him with no choice but to kill a man. To atone for his crime, he vows to take care of his victim’s widow and young son. But the gang won’t rest until they’ve killed the entire family - including the man who stands in their way. With this breathtakingly stylised film, Tai Kato broke all the conventions of the yakuza genre, fusing blood-spurting action with melodrama worthy of Japanese cinema’s greatest masters.

LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY SPECIAL FEATURES

High-Definition digital transfer
Uncompressed mono PCM audio
Interview with film critic Koushi Ueno about the film’s place in genre cinema history (2024)
A visual essay on star Kinnosuke Nakamura by Japanese cinema expert Robin Gatto (2024)
New and improved English subtitle translation
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Time Tomorrow
Limited edition booklet featuring new writing by scholar Ivo Smits and a newly translated archival review
Limited Edition of 3000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings

watched 'i, the executioner' this week, and can't think of another japanese film of the period that's as dark in its subject matter and approach. that might just be my memory. some of the language is very explicit, and makes me wonder if this is the script or the faithful approach in the subtitles that doesn't censor anything out, intentionally or otherwise.

'tokijiro' the most like the kind of films i'd want more of, as i can only watch zatoichi films so many times, and this does remind me of that production style from the majority of that series.

I'm curious if I, The Executioner or By A Man's Face Shall You Know Him will get region A releases at some point and if so, from whom.

Film Movement has the US rights to those two.

Tokijiro was okay. What's interesting is the critical meditation on the consequences of killing, how much this affects the principal character as well, and how meaningless the samurai codes are in contrast to its damage. I just didn't really feel like the film spent enough time with its meditations, and so the loneliness in the title pales next to the actions taken. As soon as we approach the key moment of stewing on brutal damage, the movie just moves on to something else - particularly a tonal change to carefree joy happens all too quickly between scenes. Tai Katō definitely has chops (I skipped ahead of the other three releases - haven't seen a film by this director yet) but there's nothing much to care about in here, try as it might to build up investment in a makeshift family drama. The violence is never framed quite the same way twice, which is interesting when it comes, but ultimately feels pointless (which is very much the point, but the film inconsistently sensationalizes it as if there is a greater purpose sometimes, at odds with the pivotal early scene and the ending). Maybe familiarizing myself with his style or other works will enrich impressions of this one down the line.

Of the four they've released so far, this was my least favorite. Admittedly my mind was sort of elsewhere due to harrowing family news but it also just didn't captivate me as the other three did (and of those, I found I The Executioner too grim to want to watch again). Still, 3 out of 4 is a strong ratio of hits to misses, and I'm looking forward to what other Katos Fran might release in 2025.

I think Fran actually said in an interview that there weren't any more Kato titles planned for 2025 (slight shame, as I was hoping he'd get The Ondekoza from his Shochiku deal). He implied another great under-appreciated Japanese director would be explored instead.

I got the year wrong; I did mean 2026. I knew none were coming next year.