Dragnet Girl

There's alot of push and pull, alot of intricacies to the way the characters interact and react, and Tanaka drives the movie with a wide range of emotions as she goes from high power party girl to wanting something more domestic. The movie is also totally unpredictable. I even feel I've spoiled the scene between Kazuko and Tokiko by mentioning it. As I was watching, I really didn't know what would happen. Tokiko was just as likely to kill Kazuko as kiss her...or to even kill herself!

Ozu making a gangster drama and what can be cuter then a young Kinuyo Tanaka with a gun?! And her expressive emotions stole every scene. No matter how cool Joji Oka looked, he could not match the rebel in Tanaka. And what happens? I guess they both fall in love with Sumiko Mizukubo's decency and want to go straight. And their heart is in the right place for a one last bust. Here you get Ozu's visual magic and maybe with a minor tweaks a the story this could have been a true classic.

It spends too much time on setting up the story and not enough letting it play out in front of us. We get to know the characters fairly well; then when they encounter each other in varying combinations, they say and do things that we're just supposed to accept with nothing to explain or support them. Acharacter pulls a gun, then touches another's cheek softly and says, "I like you." Why? How? Still, worth checking out for fans of early gangster pictures and for enthusiasts of Japanese cinema.

Well filmed and well paced. A bit melodramatic but nicely acted. I watched this without a score and it kept me engaged the entire time.

Visst är det en liten anomali i Ozus filmografi, men knappast till den grad vissa vill göra gällande. Påstås vara den enda av hans filmer där en pistol avfyras, men visst sköts det även i An Inn in Tokyo?