Black Line (1960)

Black Line (1960)

1960-01-13 Japan 80 Min. PG-13
5.5 4 votes

Overview

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.

Cast

天知茂 is Koji Machida
Koji Machida
細川俊夫 is Goro Torii
Goro Torii
Reiko Seto is Reiko Onuma
Reiko Onuma
魚住純子 is Kaneko Sano
Kaneko Sano
鮎川浩 is Hotel manager
Hotel manager
大友純 is Yukichi Tachibana
Yukichi Tachibana
小高まさる is Photo seller
Photo seller