Ironfinger
                                    
Director:  Jun Fukada
Year: 1965
Rating: 7.0
Aka - Hyappatsu hyakuchu aka 100 Shot, 100 Killed

Both the English and Japanese titles capture to some degree the light-footed tongue in cheek nature of this Toho film from 1965. It is more a pastiche than a parody as it pays homage to the James Bond films but within the framework of their Yakuza film genre. Directed by Toho's number two director Jun Fukada (after Ishiro Honda of course), the film is a delight of style and pop - beginning with an opening theme song and continuing with vivid bright colors, large convertibles, beautiful women, comical villains, hit men and hit women, leather jackets, fedoras and gadgets galore. There is a plot in there somewhere but it feels very secondary and a little silly to the feel and look of the film. None of it is to be taken seriously, but simply enjoyed. Fukada has always been overshadowed by Honda but his variety of films from Kaiju to crime are pretty amazing.   



One thing occurred to me while watching this (and others such as Black Tight Killers and Key of Keys) is that it may very well have influenced the look and outlandish nature of the spy films produced in Hong Kong by Shaw Brothers like The Golden Buddha (1966), The Black Falcon (1967), Angel with the Iron Fists (1967), Interpol (1967), Asia-Pol (1967), Operation Lipstick (1967), Brain Stealers (1968), Temptress of a Thousand Faces (1968). Shaw clearly kept an eye on what was going on cinematically in Japan and brought over a few of their directors - a couple who directed some of those films mentioned. So perhaps though Bond was the worldwide craze, in Hong Kong it partly came through Japan.



Don't go expecting this film to make a lot of logical sense - it doesn't as it is a series of escapes, brawls, night club scenes, absurdities and coolness. It begins with Hoshino (a dapper Akira Takarada) asking the man next to him on an airplane for a cigarette and quoting his mother which he does a lot through the film. He tells the man that they will see the sights of Hong Kong together and the man says absolutely not. The man has the look of a film villain with his thin moustache, sunglasses and fedora on - but he is soon killed by two men on motorcycles with Hoshino by his side. Hoshino than calmly pulls out a gun and kills them. He next flies to Tokyo to look for Monsieur Leboise - a reputed gun smuggler. Hoshino seems to be having the time of his life with a big smile plastered on his face for the entire film.



Everyone takes him for an agent for Interpol - the cops (the droopy mustached Ichirô Arishim), the bad guys and the lovely Yumi who is an expert on munitions and seemingly on the side of the Akatsuki Family. Yumi is played by the yummy Mie Hama - future Bond Girl - who looks smashing later in her orange bikini. Hoshino gets picked up at the airport by Yumi, knocked out by her with a drugged cigarette that explodes when she whistles, escapes, gets captured, escapes and so on. The Anoma Gang and the Akatsuki Family are at war and Hoshino intentionally puts himself in the middle of it. Throw in an assassin for who knows who played by Toho regular Akihiko Hirata with a flask full of acid and it is good fun. The scene with the exploding oil drums is like a Mack Sennett comedy moment.