Criterion takes a look at Seijun Suzuki's 1967 film Branded to Kill, a carnival for the eyes which won him the Cinematography Incentive Award from the Art Directors Guild of Japan. The director explains his exclaimed spatial practices and illustration of a professional killer saying “I decided to pursue the coldness of that peculiar realm of society. To do so, I eliminated all trace of warmth from every set (choosing location sites with that premise in mind) and based the set design on straight lines and nonright angles (especially acute angles), using a chiaroscuro color scheme of white, black, gray, and silver.” Suzuki's sixties pop-art aesthetic and execution is just as staggering today as ever. The high definition restoration of the film is available here. 

Source - Criterion

Megan Christiansen