I very much suspect that the hung-loose narrative of this film, and indeed much of the content, is a surreal take on prolonged stimulant use. Just as in a contemporary pornographic (filmed or drawn in manga) setting, characters shoot up speed for its sex edge, the main character here sniffs rice instead. The scene in his apartment when he returns back work for example. I'm not saying this is the whole of the film, but it's a possible interpretation. Amphetamines, both then and now, remain a mainstay of gang operations in Japan and use is frowned upon, though secretly tolerated. Provided you don't let yourself go like our hero here and start having imaginary conversations in your head, discovering secret conspiracies etc. This is by no means the whole of the movie, but I don't believe that Suzuki gets the man to sniff rice to indicate his "Japaneseness", whatever that is. Indeed it's his fetishisation of rice that helps indicate him stepping out various structures and confines and towards his eventual demise. The question remains is why the director got him to pad out his cheeks to such an extent...
Review of Branded to Kill
