Yasujiro Ozu is today best known for his domestic melodramas. In the 1930s, however, he made a string of silent crime films. The best of these is "Dragnet Girl", a noirish, atmospherically shot feature about a typist (Kinuyo Tanaka) who moonlights as a gangster's moll.
Influenced by Joseph Von Sternberg, and a giant homage to American crime dramas, "Dragnet Girl" boasts a style that is completely divorced from Ozu's later works. Sharp suits, deep shadows, fedoras, guns, girls, pool halls, audacious camera work and moody lighting, "Dragnet Girl's" a neo-noir years before the term "film noir" had even been popularised.
7.9/10 – Worth one viewing. See Renoir's "The Beast".
Influenced by Joseph Von Sternberg, and a giant homage to American crime dramas, "Dragnet Girl" boasts a style that is completely divorced from Ozu's later works. Sharp suits, deep shadows, fedoras, guns, girls, pool halls, audacious camera work and moody lighting, "Dragnet Girl's" a neo-noir years before the term "film noir" had even been popularised.
7.9/10 – Worth one viewing. See Renoir's "The Beast".