Hulkeasexo it is the rare 'crazy' movie that actually has something to say.

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

ActuallyGlimmer The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Cristal The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Charles Camp A playful, frenetic and experimental film about a Yakuza legend who is repeatedly sucked back into the tangles of the criminal world despite his best efforts to escape it. It's a difficult film to make heads or tails of on an initial viewing as the plot moves at an incredibly fast pace, often comedically so. It's intentionally disorienting and seems to encourage the viewer to find entertainment in the aesthetic rather than the convoluted plot. Thankfully, the aesthetic is up to the task as the film has an abundance of memorable locations and sets, vibrant colors, cheeky editing and an overall quirky sense of humor that keeps things compelling from moment to moment even if the overarching structure of the film is muddled. I didn't find myself emotionally invested in the movie and at times it was frustrating to follow, but I was consistently amused and often marveled at the images on display. The ending set piece was a stunner in particular. Absolutely worth seeing for the style-obsessed, but may be frustrating for those who favor a more traditional approach. 3.5/5

MisterWhiplash It must have been a delirious joy for Seijun Suzuki to direct Tokyo Drifter (when the meddlesome but fair studio heads got in a tiff with him over the final cut); it's a director's movie, and he shoots it and edits it like a jazz-man in a tiny club going one step further than John Coltrane. He's in love with image, LOVES filling it with color and derangement and bursts of violence when required during the theme song crooning along. This is what makes it so satisfying and troublesome; like avant-garde jazz it doesn't have much structure, it's rhythm is erratic and it will throw off some. He even makes Takashi Miike seem fairly normal in comparison. But to see those little riffs, those scenes where Suzuki rolls out all of his cinematic tricks, it's so worthwhile.For one thing Tokyo Drifter walks along a line that is so gratifying since it works as a straight yakuza thriller about gangster Tetsuo trying to go legit with his boss only to be drawn back in by a sour deal on a building worth millions, and as a oddly subtle AND over the top parody with plenty of rock music, colors that pop off the screen, and plenty of attitude and violence. Suzuki also doesn't play by any rules which is exhilarating... it also tends to be a little frustrating if looking for a very coherent story, or some supporting characters to care about. But it works because the focus isn't on the script but the direction; it's probably as strong a job as with Branded to Kill, only in lush colors (sometimes matching with white or yellow or blues, like a coloring book with a splash of acid) and with a catchy theme song (one scene, where Tetsuo is singing the song to himself while walking along, leading up to an ambush by a bunch of other yakuza, is incredibly funny).Watch it to have a fun time, for a good dosage of experimentation, and to get a couple of really bad-ass scenes, maybe some of the freshest and most entertaining in any crime movie. I was quite happy I took the 83 minute trip with the drifter and his saga, even if it is less than great is arguable, and I'd argue it isn't.

BJJManchester A basically routine Japanese gangster melodrama,TOKYO DRIFTER has been recognised as a classic example of 'B' picture film-making by dedicated film scholars and cultists in the West,along with Seijun Suzuki's other Yakuza masterpiece,BRANDED TO KILL.It has a confusing,if deliberately ambiguous narrative which takes considerable following,which is the film's only major Achilles heel.Where TOKYO DRIFTER succeeds is in it's clever production design,lighting,stylised action,superb photography and imagery.Suzuki has ensured that,if we the audience are hopelessly led astray with the murky goings on with the plot,we can still admire it's dazzling style and colour,plus some other quirky touches,such as gags about hairdryers,a John Wayne-like Western barroom brawl,and an oddly memorable theme song.This is insistently played throughout the film,but still pleasantly haunts the mind despite it's repetition.After BRANDED TO KILL,Suzuki fell foul of his bosses and was sacked for making such unusual,auteur-style Yakuza melodramas.This is a great shame as he did not direct another film for some years afterwards,depriving us all of his uniquely styled gems,possibly when he was creatively at his most fertile.It is all the more encouraging,that,in his 80's,there are still new admirers and retrospectives of his work(there was one quite recently in London,with Suzuki making a welcome personal appearance despite failing health),and his most up to date work,PRINCESS RACCOON,was generally given considerable praise.Let's hope that this previously neglected master stylist of Japanese,if not World,cinema,will finally be given his dues.RATING:7 and a Half out of 10.

Camera Obscura TOKYO DRIFTER (Seijun Suzuki - Japan 1966).I watched this film twice now, together with Suzuki's BRANDED TO KILL (1967). For all its supposed visual brilliance, I never really enjoyed watching his films so far. I love these ultra-stylized gangster-flics from the late sixties by Jean-Pierre Melville, or POINT BLANK (1967) by John Boorman. When watching Suzuki's films 40 years later, his cinematic tricks seem so obvious. Undoubtedly novel at the time, but showing a change in background color of the sets when shots are fired, makes it look like a badly lit theater set.Between all the pop-art visuals, there's a far-fetched - and hopelessly clichéd (40 years later) story about an ice-cool hit-man in a powder blue suit, who wants to put his life of crime behind him and go straight. But when his old boss Kurata comes under threat from old adversaries, his loyalty as a former bodyguard draw him back into an outrageous world of gangland rivalry, complete with a Western style "saloon brawl." And there this so-called "memorable" or "unforgettable theme tune", of which I don't know the title. Memorable it is, in a very annoying way. It's fine when first played during the opening credits, but enough is enough. It's played at least ten times throughout the entire film. This has been done many times in other films, to various amounts of success. But here, It drove me nuts!Perhaps I will pick up this film again in the next couple of years, upon watching some other Japanese film, and perhaps I will like much better then, but so far I didn't. Until then, watch out for over-stylized visuals and corny love-stories with some hilarious over-acting by Japanese actresses trying to come across as female love interests.Camera Obscura --- 5/10