Tattooed Life

Title: Tattooed Life
Director: Seijun Suzuki
Cast: Hideki Takahashi, Akira Yamauchi, Hiroko Ito
Year: 1965
MPAA: Not Rated
Date of Review: February 1, 2007

Seijun Suzuki is a very interesting filmmaker. His 50 year career has made him one of the leading Japanese directors, especially in terms of pure style. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, he became one of the more prolific Japanese directors to capture the violence of the yakuza world on screen, and films like Tokyo Drifter and Branded to Kill have become classics of the genre. Tattooed Life was released in 1965, and is one of his less stylistic and more narrative-driven films, but it still retains his ability to commit some beautiful imagery to film, as well as fantastic action.

Tattooed Life is the story of two brothers: Tetsu and Kenji. Tetsu is a yakuza underling who kills the boss of a rival gang, who then send a man to kill him. His brother Kenji is a passive young man, emotionally fragile and pursuing a career in art, but manages to save Tetsu’s life by killing the man sent to kill him. This prompts the two brothers to run away and live a reclusive life as construction workers. They create many strong friendships and earn the respect of their coworkers, but are constantly watching out for police or yakuza who may show up to arrest or kill them.

It is interesting the way Suzuki presents the presence of a threat. Near the beginning of the film, the police are in pursuit of the two brothers, but don’t really have anything to go on other than the fact that they are two grown men. The one detective who begins to get close is almost always shown from the shins down, as he wears bright red shoes. Later on, a yakuza shows up at the construction site wearing an almost identical pair of red shoes. Several characters throughout the film are shown wearing this almost flamboyantly bright red shoes, warning the viewer that trouble lies ahead. It’s a very different stylistic choice on the part of Suzuki, but it works.

The entire film has the theme of not being able to escape your past – the idea that the things you do and have done are “tattooed” onto you is represented by the yakuza lifestyle quite literally being tattooed onto Tetsu. The yakuza have always been known for their elaborate tattoos all over their bodies, so when Tetsu runs away and does not want anyone to know of his past, he does not let anyone see him unclothed, even when bathing – regardless of the fact that he has become a genuinely different person. It’s a very good look at identity and whether or not people are ever really able to have a fresh start at life.

Tattooed Life culminates in an incredible sword fight, at least equal in quality to anything shown in the best of samurai cinema. It really displays Suzuki’s ability to create a tense, thrilling action scene, and is better than anything else he has done, including the ever-famous climax to Tokyo Drifter featuring the “gun throw”. Tattooed Life’s swordfight is also where Suzuki’s artistic stylings show through the most. The final showdown makes use of a glass floor which the camera sits underneath, providing a great and not-often-used view of each fighter.

No doubt many people overlook Tattooed Life, as it is one of Suzuki’s most straightforward outings. It’s unlike anything else he has done, but it’s also one of the best and most fully realized films of his entire career, even if just looking at the underlying theme. Many of his other films had almost Lynch-ian plots and characters which were quite hard to decipher. But the message of Tattooed Life is clear: the things you do define you, and are tattooed onto you for the rest of your life. While you can try to run away – and may think you’ve successfully done so – the ghosts of your past will always catch up to you, and at some point you will need to deal with them, or else they will destroy you.

8.5 / 10