Branded to Kill

Branded to Kill, 1967 Japanese yakuza film.

From the Criterion website: When Japanese New Wave bad boy Seijun Suzuki delivered this brutal, hilarious, and visually inspired masterpiece to the executives at his studio, he was promptly fired.

Japan is a strange place and this was a very strange movie. I don't think I really understood it, and I can't say as I enjoyed it. Very odd.

The last sequence includes some shots of an electric wall clock. The clock is a conventional round, Western style clock with Arabic numerals from one through twelve arranged around the perimeter. The name of the manufacturer is written in English on the face of the clock. No Japanese anywhere on the clock.

There were several Japanese cars in the film, but the most important cars were all foreign makes: a Dodge with big tail fins (or Plymouth, I'm not sure which), a Mercedes, an MGB and some kind of small European sedan. I know I've seen it before, but I can't remember the name.

Update: After talking with Jack about this I got to wondering if maybe it was supposed to be a comedy. I mean comedy is tricky. There were a couple of scenes that got a laugh from the audience (including me) but much of the action just struck me as either a) overwrought (the emotional reactions from the actors), or b) sloppy (the gun fights).