Black Line

Black Line

80 mins | Crime | Jan. 13, 1960

Freelance reporter “Scoop” Machida is hot on the trail of a prostitution ring called the Black Line, when he is framed for the murder of a young woman. Forced to clear his own name, the handsome journalist sinks deeper into the Black Line’s rotten swamp of drugs, prostitution, and murder and finds unexpected help in Maya, a steamy female gambler familiar with the neon-lit streets, shadowy alleyways, and seedy nightclubs he must navigate. The closest film in the Line series to classic American film noir, Ishii’s Black Line is a pulpy assortment of crime film conventions including the starkly expressionistic black and white cinematography by Jûgyô Yoshida, a jazzy music score by Michiaki Watanabe, and a sleazy screenplay by Ishii and Ichirô Miyagawa.

Black Line

80 mins | Crime | Jan. 13, 1960

Black Line
Freelance reporter “Scoop” Machida is hot on the trail of a prostitution ring called the Black Line, when he is framed for the murder of a young woman. Forced to clear his own name, the handsome journalist sinks deeper into the Black Line’s rotten swamp of drugs, prostitution, and murder and finds unexpected help in Maya, a steamy female gambler familiar with the neon-lit streets, shadowy alleyways, and seedy nightclubs he must navigate. The closest film in the Line series to classic American film noir, Ishii’s Black Line is a pulpy assortment of crime film conventions including the starkly expressionistic black and white cinematography by Jûgyô Yoshida, a jazzy music score by Michiaki Watanabe, and a sleazy screenplay by Ishii and Ichirô Miyagawa.
IMDb rating 7.0
Producers Shintoho Company
Original title 黒線地帯
Directors Kichitarô Shibata, Teruo Ishii
Writers Ichirô Miyagawa, Teruo Ishii

Cast

Shigeru Amachi

as Koji Machida

Utako Mitsuya

as Misako

Yōko Mihara

as Maya

Toshio Hosokawa

as Goro Torii

Reiko Seto

as Reiko Onuma

Kyôko Yashiro

as Chiaki

Junko Uozumi

as Kaneko Sano

Hiroshi Ayukawa

as Hotel manager

Yuji Munakata

as Joe

Jun Ōtomo

as Yukichi Tachibana

Masaru Kodaka

as Photo seller

Ryuji Moriyama

as Taizo

Hiroshi Asami

as Kayoko (gay boy)

Miho Jo

as Hotel maid Tokiko

Kuniko Yamamura

as Kayo

Yoko Nanbara

as Emi Hamaguchi

Kyôko Katsura

as Kyôko

Keiko Minakami

as Singapore (waitress)

Masayo Yoshida

as Ranko Kuroki

Masao Takamatsu

as Old man at boat store

Yoji Naruto

as Sabu

Sôten Kuni

as Manager

Daijiro Kikukawa

as Namikawa

Tomohiko Ôtani

as Old man at mannequin store

Shogo Sakane

as Gay boy B

Kyoji Murayama

as Policeman

Seiji Hara

as Grocery store clerk

Kôichi Miya

as Detective Kondo

Yūzō Harumi

as Detective Suzuki

Hiroaki Kurahashi

as Detective Inoue