Detective Bureau 2-3: Go to Hell, Bastards!

Seijun Suzuki's 1963 film follows Tajima, who runs his own detective agency. When rival crime organisations rob an American military depot of weapons, Tajima steps in to do what the police cannot and infiltrates one of the gangs. It was made as one of Nikkatsu's assembly-line crime pictures, but Suzuki keeps breaking the standard mould. The use of colour has no interest in realism; one scene is painted red, the next blue. An unexpected musical number arrives in the middle of the action and nobody explains it. Jo Shishido stars. Known for the surgery he had on his cheeks, he became the face of Suzuki's sixties crime films. This one is more accessible than the director's later, more extreme work; the formula is still recognisable. Who it's for: those curious about sixties Japanese crime cinema and Suzuki's formal games. Who it's not for: viewers expecting a serious detective plot; the film does not care about its story and does not pretend otherwise.