Yûjirô Ishihara is a killer from Tokyo, come to Kobe to lie low. His plans are thwarted almost immediately when he witnesses a brutal mob hit on the waterfront, and he becomes involved with the sister of a dead Yakuza. The cops are trailing him, the Yakuza want to put him to work, but he stubbornly resists.

My research shows that this was roughly based on PEPE LE MOKO, but I find its brutal side and plot give it a linkage to another well known crime drama, HIGH SIERRA Ishihara may not be Bogart with flour in his hair to make him look old and tired, but he is weary of a life in the shadows, a life he cannot escape, caught between the police and the Japanese crime organization. This is a Japanese movie, however, and the brutality and open sexuality of the docks makes this a less human film. In all three, the question remains: can a man outrun his fate?

50s subculture icon Yujiro Ishihara ("Crazed Fruit") stars in Masuda's "Red Pier" as "Jiro the Lefty", a killer with a natural talent. Shortly after arriving in Kobe, he witnesses a man die in a crane accident which turns out to be a cover-up for a murder. Jiro soon finds himself on the run, tailed by a determined cop...

Allegedly, this film (also known as "Red Quay") is based on the 1937 French film "Pépé le Moko". Although I have seen "Pepe", I unfortunately don't recall it well enough to make any observations on the parallels.

Just a general comment: I am surprised how few gangster films take place on piers or waterfronts. Obviously, "On the Waterfront" is the most notable (even if not thought of as a gang film). Controlling the ports is a big money maker for the mob and gangs... I'm glad the writer of this film made that a focus.

After the October Challenge,I took a look at other, non-Horror box sets that I've left unfinished. Despite finding Voice Without a Shadow (1958) (which I've reviewed) to be superb, I somehow had skipped seeing the other two titles in the first of Arrow's Nikkatsu's Diamond Guys set,this led to me diving off the red pier towards the first of these two.

View on the film:

Treating the transfer with the same respect given to Seijun Suzuki's work in the set, Arrow present an image which is crystal clear, a soundtrack that is clean and well-paced English subtitles.

Lifting a rich Film Noir atmosphere from the opening murder via crane, co-writer/(with Ichirô Ikeda) director Toshio Masuda & cinematographer Shinsaku Himeda unveil gorgeous stylisation in the crisp white clothes Tominaga lands in the port with reflected in pristine white lights lining every street and crashing against the waves, whilst subtly outlining the murky deals taking place under the pristine port. Hitting his targets with a mighty swagger, Masuda and Himeda give their loner bags of Film Noir chic spun from off-kilter camera angles curling round to follow Tominaga make his escape, and fluid, hand-held camera moves following each punch Tominaga offers up.

Taking the basic outline of Julien Duvivier's classic Pépé le Moko (1937) (a Film Noir loner flees to the outskirts to avoid the cops) the screenplay by Masuda and Ikeda brilliantly draw up the sketch to comment on the youthful Post-WWII era of Japan, by having Tominaga be one of the new "water trade" (a black market many people worked in to survive during the aftermath of losing the war) gangsters, who is a free-wheeling loner who does not follow the pre-WWII codes of "loyalty" the underworld lived by. Smoothly crossing Film Noir with the popular "Sun-Tribe"/Zoku genre, the writers hits the early sugar rush of the French New Wave by Tominaga (played by a wonderfully dashing and slick Yûjirô Ishihara) being unable to let his secret love Keiko Sugita (a very good Mie Kitahara) cross his personal space, as a harmonica plays music from the heart of Tominaga across the red pier.