Detective Bureau 2-3: Go to Hell Bastards!

Assigned a standard Yakuza film in the hardboiled vein pioneered at Japan's famed Nikkatsu Studios, director Seijun Suzuki (Branded to Kill) and his frequent leading man Jo Shishido used 1963's Detective Bureau 2-3: Go to Hell Bastards! to flip the Japanese gangster film genre on its ear.

A rapid fire gun heist, credits with an infectious jazz pop score, and a wide-screen close-up of a burning car announce Detective Bureau 2-3: Go to Hell Bastards! as the film that would both lampoon and redefine Asian crime films for an irreverent new decade of garish panache and ultra-violent cool. The story follows police detective Tajima (Shishido), who, tasked with tracking down stolen firearms, turns an underworld grudge into a bloodbath -- while Suzuki transforms a colorful potboiler into an on-target send-up of cultural colonialism and post-war greed. "This isn't an American TV series," one of Tajima's doubting subordinates tells the sharkskin-suited, super suave sleuth.

Anarchic, breakneck paced, darkly comic, and stylish to the extreme, Detective Bureau 2-3: Go to Hell Bastards! was a movie unlike anything audiences had ever seen. It would cement Suzuki's fervent popularity at home and heralded his imminent cult status worldwide.

Cast & Crew

Actors:  • Nobuo Kaneko  • Tamio Kawachi  • Asao Sano  • Reiko Sasamori  • Kinzo Shin  • Jo Shishido Writers:  • Gan Yamazaki Producers:  • Shozo Ashida Directors:  • Seijun Suzuki

Product Information

Features: Features Not Specified Video: Widescreen 2.35:1 Color (Anamorphic) Audio: JAPANESE: Dolby Digital Stereo Subtitles: English

Studio: Kino Video Production Year: 1963 Release Date: 6/9/2009 Length: 88 mins Rating: NR Packaging: Keep Case Number of Discs: 1 Disc: SS-DL UPC Code: 738329063528