Tattooed Life
directed by Seijun Suzuki
starring Hideki Takahashi, Masako Izumi
Radiance Films
Seijun Suzuki’s Tattooed Life is a intriguing transitional film between the director’s standard genre productions and the avant-garde turn that would cement his legacy and wreck his career. A tale of a hardened Yakuza member trying to start a new life while also protecting his sensitive, artist brother seems a fitting story for Suzuki, who himself was attempting to leave the formulaic Yakuza films behind and venture into far more dazzling visual fare — a choice that caused the studio boss to declare that Suzuki’s films “make no sense and make no money.”
After killing a mob boss, Yakuza hitman Tetsuo and his brother Kenji have to go on the run. They attempt to flee to the Japanese colonies in Manchuria, but are swindled out of their cash. With few prospects and no way to return home, the brothers secure work on a dam construction site. The brothers ingratiate themselves with the workers on the site, who are unaware of Tetsuo’s affiliation. The brothers find themselves in a love triangle with the boss’s wife, who falls in love with Tetsuo while Kenji’s infatuation leads him to create artworks of her. Tetsuo realizes that it is time to move on, but his loyalty to his new brotherhood makes him stay. Soon the brother’s secrets are revealed, and Tetsuo has no choice but to return to his old life as the Silver Fox, an identity seared into his flesh and soul by the full torso tattoo of a wolf, hence the title: Tattooed Life. When Kenji is murdered, Tetsuo goes on a brutal night of vengeance in a sequence where director Suzuki, like his protagonist, cannot go back.
Suzuki’s films have amassed a well-deserved reputation for their visual panache, but the director also manages to layer that with some nicely grounded characters and nuanced acting. His characters are an underrated part of Suzuki’s films, but without them, I don’t know if his films would have held up over the decades. The visual flair, including a dazzling use of color and avant-garde camera work here and in subsequent films like Tokyo Drifter and Youth of the Beast, would make Suzuki a legendary director who is still a clear influence on film directors in the 21st century.
Making its Blu-ray debut, Tattooed Life is a quirky and entertaining film that simultaneously subverts and celebrates the Yakuza film genre. The transfer is gorgeous, especially in the dynamo finale. The disc has a few extras, including an audio commentary from author William Carroll (Seijun Suzuki and Postwar Cinema, 2022) and a booklet featuring writing from asian film historian Tom Vick. Tattooed Life continues Radiance Films’ stellar run of curating some of the best forgotten and underseen gems in world cinema.
