Black Tight Killers

So, I was going to start my review by saying how this basically is like a James Bond film if directed by Branded to Kill Seijun Suzuki... And it so happens that this was not only produced by Nikkatsu but director Yasuharu Hasebe had Suzuki as his mentor. And this was…

Rafael "Mister Movie" Jovine

“That’s the ninja chewing gum bullet.” I swear Black Tight Killers has a plot, but it doesn’t matter. Like many Japanese crime films of its period, the visuals overwhelm the story. It’s a Pop Art Bond homage, with a little bondage. “Who’d commit murder on a…

noir1946

the type of casually cool genre hybrid that could only be the product of the 60s, like the Japanese equivalent of Danger: Diabolik, putting the energy and color palette of something like Tokyo Drifter in a blender with Stray Cat Rock and then, somehow, letting it exist on…

Justin LaLiberty

“Who’d commit murder on a date?” The Octopus Pot Predicted the leggings in public trend by about 50 years. Chewing gum bullets, bra grenades, lethal tape measurers, gold painted bodies, red interior convertibles and ninja go-go girls: Hasebe's kinky pop art spy film…

Gentry Austin

I remember seeing this on VHS back in the nineties and loving it. I’ve seen it a few more times over the years, but this was my first time seeing the (great-looking) Radiance blu-ray. The movie is an intensely colorful, Bond-inspired detective story of sorts—even though I…

atmartin

It takes no more than the first few minutes of this wacky stunner to either fall head over heels in love with it or switch the damn thing off right away. No kudos for guessing which side I’m on. It certainly helps if you have an affinity for the wilder side of 60s pop…

Schratzi

Squanders an incredible premise (all-girl gang of go-go dancing ninjas) on a kinda bland Eurospy-meets-Nikkatsu hybrid vehicle for Akira Kobayashi. The girl gang is amazing, so it's a shame that they all get picked off one-by-one, just for the sake of helping Kobayashi save…

Liz

Whilst the plot of Yasuharu Hasebe’s spy caper could easily be a grim yakuza gallop through post-WWII guilt ridden Japan – stolen gold from the war becomes the prize for warring gangster factions, with a war photographer and an airline stewardess caught in the crossfire –…

Mark Costello

Should we give you a free shave? Or maybe just slice your throat?Stolen gold, ninja gangs, portable canons, and all out action: a look at Nikkatsu’s colourful take on Bond. Arrivederci, Leoparda Carina! From Spy Novel to Nikkatsu Spy At the peak of the 1960s spy craze,…

Pauline_M