Take Aim at the Police Van : Production, Release Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Take Aim at the Police Van

1960 Japanese film

January 27, 1960 (1960-01-27)

Running time

79 minutesCountryJapanLanguageJapanese

Take Aim at the Police Van (十三号待避線より: その護送車を狙え, Jūsangō taihisen yori: Sono gosōsha o nerae) is a 1960 Japanese film directed by Seijun Suzuki and starring Michitaro Mizushima.

Production

The Nikkatsu Company conceived Take Aim at the Police Van as a borderless action film, a studio subgenre with internationalized characters and setting. Contract director Seijun Suzuki had previously worked mainly on pop song films, a youth subgenre in which the films were built around an already popular song, and yakuza films with an occasional film noir bent.^[1] It also marked the beginning of his practice of co-writing his films.^[2] Leading man Michitaro Mizushima had also starred in Suzuki's Underworld Beauty two years earlier. He was atypical of borderless action films by virtue of his age, forty-eight at the time, as they typically featured Nikkatsu's younger stars such as Yujiro Ishihara and Akira Kobayashi.^[1]

Release

Take Aim at the Police Van was released in Japan by the Nikkatsu Company on January 27, 1960.^[3] It was subsequently released in a five-film DVD box set, titled Nikkatsu Noir, in North America on August 25, 2009, under The Criterion Collection's Eclipse label. The set focuses on noir-themed Nikkatsu Action films and also includes I Am Waiting (1957), Rusty Knife (1958), Cruel Gun Story (1964) and A Colt Is My Passport (1967) with liner notes by film historian Chuck Stephens.^[4]

The A.V. Club's Noel Murray felt the film holds up against contemporary Hollywood film noir. Rating it less abstract than Seijun Suzuki's films of a few years later, he highlighted its vim and social candor and named it "[a testament] to how artists pumping out quickie exploitation product can often work in truths about their times that prestige filmmakers can't."^[5]

Has been shown on the Turner Classic Movies show 'Noir Alley' with Eddie Muller.

References

^ ^a ^b Stephens, Chuck (August 2009). "Eclipse Series 17: Nikkatsu Noir". The Criterion Collection. Retrieved 2009-09-24.
^ Weisser, Thomas (1998). "The Films of Seijun Suzuki". Asian Cult Cinema. 21. Vital Books: 47.
^ １３号待避線よりその護送車を狙え (in Japanese). Kinema Junpo Movie Database. Archived from the original on 2011-10-07. Retrieved 2009-09-10.
^ Erickson, Glenn (August 2009). "Eclipse Series 17: Nikkatsu Noir". DVD Talk. Retrieved 2009-09-10.
^ Murray, Noel (September 2009). "Eclipse Series 17: Nikkatsu Noir". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 2009-09-10.