By A Man's Face Shall You Know Him
WWII veteran Dr. Amamiya (played by real life former yakuza Noboru Ando) runs a clinic in a downtrodden Japanese neighborhood. When an accident victim brought to him for treatment turns out to be his ethically Korean war buddy he recalls the criminal strife that practically ripped their town apart and changed their lives forever just some years earlier right after the war. Flashbacks reveal the brash and contentious Korean gang that tried to take over the local market and turn it into a red light district. While fueled by innate prejudice from the native Japanese residents, the hoodlums’ ruthless methods lead to unspeakably treacherous acts. As both sides’ anger escalates to the brink, Dr. Amamiya takes matters into his own hands to try and control this untenable conflict. Director Tai Kato’s groundbreaking feature takes on controversial sociopolitical issues with his distinct cinematic aesthetic in a seamless blend of melodrama and action that is exemplary of his “superb craftsmanship and personal style” (Los Angeles Times).
Cast
- Noboru Ando
- Ichiro Nakatani
- Sanae Nakahara
- Ryôhei Uchida
- "Watching a Kato picture is a pure pleasure. He is so much a master of genre that he can play with the conventions with great ease and create films of superb craftsmanship and personal style. "
- "Kato raised even routine stories of gangster revenge to dramatic heights using Ozu-esque low angles to give his characters grandeur and filming action scenes with a Kurosawa-like combination of realism and panache. But his style was ultimately his own, as were his strong, passionate heroines…who coolly dispatches male opponents with a short sword."
- "Kato himself is both forward looking yet one of the most traditional of Japanese post-war film-makers, nowhere more evident than in this movie. "
- "It is highly compelling, dramatic and wonderful looking...."
- "[O]ne of the finer revisionist gangster pictures of its period, and a film that successfully traces the break point separating national guilt from personal accountability."
- "By a Man’s Face Shall You Know Him is a sprawling, gutsy account of a Korean-Japanese gang’s ruthless rise to power in 1948 Osaka and a local doctor’s unexpected opposition to the hoodlums. Told through vibrant colour cinematography and a complex series of flashbacks, Kato traces the influences of sex, violence, and racism in post-war Japan."
Gallery
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