The Executioner

Teruo Ishii's 1974 Japanese film follows three men brought together to break up a drug operation. Ryuichi, trained as a ninja, Takeshi, a former narcotics detective, and Ichiro, a criminal, resemble each other in no way and do not work as a team either. The film shifts between genres quickly. Fight sequences, crude comedy, suspense and at times open violence stand side by side in the same narrative; rather than hiding the inconsistency, Ishii uses it as speed. Sonny Chiba leads and the fight sequences carry the hard choreography of Japanese action cinema of the period. The humour rests largely on the characters hating each other. Who it's for: those who like seventies Japanese action cinema and Sonny Chiba films. Who it's not for: viewers expecting a consistent tone; the film moves between comedy and harsh violence without warning and includes sexual violence in several scenes.