Black Line

5.5

80m

1960

Crime

Freelance reporter “Scoop” Machida is hot on the trail of a prostitution ring called the Black Line, when he is framed for the murder of a young woman. Forced to clear his own name, the handsome journalist sinks deeper into the Black Line’s rotten swamp of drugs, prostitution, and murder and finds unexpected help in Maya, a steamy female gambler familiar with the neon-lit streets, shadowy alleyways, and seedy nightclubs he must navigate. The closest film in the Line series to classic American film noir, Ishii’s Black Line is a pulpy assortment of crime film conventions including the starkly expressionistic black and white cinematography by Jûgyô Yoshida, a jazzy music score by Michiaki Watanabe, and a sleazy screenplay by Ishii and Ichirô Miyagawa.

Starring

Shigeru Amachi, Utako Mitsuya, Yōko Mihara, Toshio Hosokawa, Reiko Seto, Kyôko Yashiro, Junko Uozumi, Hiroshi Ayukawa, Yuji Munakata, Jun Ōtomo

Directed By

Teruo Ishii