Branded to Kill

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1h 31m

Mystery & Thriller

Crime

Drama

List

100%

Tomatometer

26 Reviews

84%

Audience Score

5,000+ Ratings

After botching his latest assignment, a third-ranked Japanese hit man becomes the target of another assassin.

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Fandango at Home

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Rent Branded to Kill on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, or buy it on Fandango at Home, Prime Video.

Tara Brady

Irish Times

Cult classic? Try one of the greatest films ever made.

Rated: 5/5

Oct 9, 2017

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Mark Kermode

Observer (UK)

An arresting cocktail of sex, violence and surrealism, shot in monochrome hues which accentuate the perversity of the entire twisted venture.

Rated: 4/5

Jul 26, 2014

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Peter Bradshaw

Guardian

Genuinely fascinating and bizarre.

Rated: 4/5

Jul 24, 2014

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Fedor Tot

Vague Visages

Discordant, broken, berserk: Branded to Kill refuses all direct relations with geography in its depiction of a career hitman on the verge of losing control.

Nov 7, 2023

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Sean Axmaker

Stream on Demand

Suzuki’s pop-art sensibilities were just a bit ahead of their time and it took more than twenty years for audiences to catch up to the director’s audacious genre-bending and narrative-busting ways.

Jun 11, 2023

Full Review

Douglas Davidson

Elements of Madness

In terms of yakuza pictures, "Branded" is a bit of a wild one, infusing each gunfight or assassination with flair and intelligence that’s in-line with modern action flicks.

May 12, 2023

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Shannon E

Absolutely love this— the film to me gives off strange neo noir vibes but stylistically; defines the Japanese new wave world of wonder (a bit slow at first), envelopes you through it's shotwork in combination with Joe Shishido (and cast playing equally well) entertaining and best (imo) towards the end.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

09/10/23

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Audience Member

Suzuki creates a visually sexy and dreamy film which hypnotises its audience

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/25/23

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Audience Member

Exceptional. Never seen anything like this before

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/27/23

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Audience Member

Would have given it zero if able. This movie is objectively awful. It's a mess and meets its billing as a B level 1960s Japanese crime film.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

02/16/23

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Audience Member

That was one stylish and weird yakuza flick! I suppose a lot of aspects of the movie are kind of absurdist. Couldn't tell if the obsession with and clarity of yakuza rankings was one of these absurdisms or if it has some resonance I'm missing. Metaphor for competitiveness in general, something yakuza-specific, or a spoof on the conventions of yakuza movies of the day? CW: rape: There is a scene in which Joe rapes Annu, the femme fatale, which was disturbing. I read a few interpretations of the movie, which seem to be taking it something like this: she wants to be killed, he assents to killing her, she then puts her head back as if to say, swoon, ravish me. Of course then he can't bring himself to kill her, and she eventually falls in love with him enough that she passively accepts being tortured by #1 (and associates?) who are using her to get at him. As far as I can tell, the rape scene is the moment when she goes from being a badass with a death drive *and* a playful love of sexy attempted murder games to a totally passive, loyal woman who would do anything for her man. (And if getting tortured and killed is part of the deal, sign her up -- well that part is consistent with her character early in the film, but it seems to me that the early character would have given as good as she got and tortured the torturers along the way.) I'm not trying to kink-shame, as in other respects the kinky and death-sex aspects of this movie are interesting and well done. But rape (or passive assent to an unpleasurable act under what turn out to be false pretenses) as the act from which selfless love springs ... ugh to that. Still, an interesting film, stylishly shot, that explores some intense issues while not getting too full of itself or weighted down. There's a playfulness and a meta-filmic quality to some of this.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/19/23

Full Review

Audience Member

A hitman, known simply as "Number 3" (after his ranking in the hitman community) is hired to protect a key crime figure. Things don't go according to plan and he finds himself on the outer with his organisation. Furthermore, this brings him into conflict with the mysterious and dangerous Number 1. Stylish but random. There was heaps of potential - from the outset the movie looked like a Japanese film-noir. The plot was quite gritty and interesting and seemed set up for a classic story. Unfortunately, it wasn't to be. The plot develops in rather random fashion. Things just happen out of blue, often with no continuity from or reference to previous scenes. It's as if director Seijun Suzuki was trying too hard to be arty and ended up just being unfocused. Throw in some hit-and-miss performances and the overall result is disappointing.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

01/20/23

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Seijun Suzuki

Director

Jo Shishido

Hanada Goro

Mariko Ogawa

Mami Hanada

Mari Annu

Misako Nakajo

Kôji Nanbara

Susumu Orui

Isao Tamagawa

Michihiko Yabuhara

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Synopsis

After botching his latest assignment, a third-ranked Japanese hit man becomes the target of another assassin.

Director: Seijun Suzuki
Screenwriter: Hachiro Guryu, Takeo Kimura, Chusei Sone, Atsushi Yamatoya
Production Co: Nikkatsu
Genre: Mystery & Thriller, Crime, Drama
Original Language: Japanese
Release Date (Streaming): Jul 21, 2009
Runtime: 1h 31m
Sound Mix: Mono

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