DETECTIVE BUREAU 2-3: GO TO HELL BASTARDS (1963) Blu-ray
Director: Seijun Suzuki
Arrow Video USA

Jô Shishido and Seijun Suzuki make the leap to color with the zany DETECTIVE BUREAU 2-3: GO TO HELL BASTARDS on Blu-ray from Arrow Video.

With police making a concerted effort to round up Yakuza gangs in Tokyo, they have fled to the suburbs and started a series of turf wars. The latest was a massacre that left several men of the Sakura and Otsuki gangs dead with only the survivor Manabe (Tamio Kawaji, TOKYO DRIFTER) suspected by both gangs of being involved with another gang who has been attacking their transports and making off with their goods. With both gangs hanging outside the station waiting for his release in order to kill Manabe upon his release – with licensed hunting rifles – private detective Tajima (Jô Shishido, YOUTH OF THE BEAST) proposes to Captain Kumagai (Nobuo Kaneko, IKIRU) a means of exposing who is pulling the strings. With the ID of a recently-paroled lookalike career criminal, Tajima is able to make off with Manabe while the yakuza after him are all rounded up by Kumagai in a sting. A grateful Manabe introduces Tajima to his boss Hatano (Kinzô Shin, GIANTS AND TOYS) who remains suspicious of Tajima and goes through as much effort to verify his identify as Tajima does to prop it up with the help of Kumagai, middle-aged junior detective Horiuchi (Hiroshi Hijikata, RED PIER), Scandal Magazine reporter/part-time assistant Misa (Yûko Kusunoki, EROS + MASSACRE), and his own Catholic priest father (Asao Sano, FIRES ON THE PLAIN). Dodging near exposure by his showgirl ex Sally (Naomi Hoshi), he risks the ire of Hatano's vengeful virginal mistress Chiaki (Reiko Sassamori, A KILLER WITHOUT A GRAVE).

A glitzy, colorful, and zany Japanese crime film, DETECTIVE BUREAU 2-3: GO TO HELL BASTARDS is carried along more so by Shishido's charisma than the broad comic relief until it takes a sudden darker turn during its third act when two sympathetic characters are murdered. This gives Shishido and Sassamori some time to be dramatic, but it makes the resumption of comic relief even less effective and the climax lacks energy in spite of a conflagration, a near-death rescue, and a shootout involving tons of extras. The result feels uneven, with director Seijun Suzuki (MASSACRE GUN) utilizing color and scope on a story that disinterests him. A sequel with Shishido followed titled DETECTIVE BUREAU 2-3: A MAN WEAK TO MONEY AND WOMEN but with the less prolific Nozomu Yanase in the director's chair.

Previously released on DVD by Kino in an anamorphic transfer that looked quite good for the time, DETECTIVE BUREAU 2-3: GO TO HELL BASTARDS comes to Blu-ray from Arrow in a 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 2.35:1 widescreen transfer that has similar framing but the obvious uptick in detail, fine grain, and better rendition of the film's bright colors as the greater color space allows for the representation of both saturated neons and healthy skintones that looked a tad too pink in some shots and too red in others on the DVD. The LPCM 1.0 mono track is clean and boisterous in terms of music and sound effects while the dialogue is clear. Optional English subtitles are free of errors.

Besides a stills gallery, the only other video extra is "Tony Rayns on DETECTIVE BUREAU 2-3" (29:01) in which he notes that it was part of a watershed year for Suzuki who also directed the more personal THE INCORRIGIBLE – available in Arrow's Seijun Suzuki: The Early Years Volume One set – THE KANTO WANDERER, and gangster flick YOUTH OF THE BEAST the same year, and began his transition from jobbing director to auteur. Although he has a low opinion of DETECTIVE BUREAU 2-3, he does note how its visuals anticipate his later works. He not only deems the comic relief characters as "painfully unfunny" – and it is not surprising to him that the film did not spin off a series with such supporting characters – but also suggests Suzuki might have been relieved to be switching Kawaji (with whom he made eight other films) for Shishido, and that the musical number is evidence that Nikkatsu was trying to groom the actor into another of the Diamond Line romantic/comic leads. Not provided for review was the reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Matthew Griffin. (Eric Cotenas)

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