Black Line (1960)
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.
Director:
Teruo Ishii
Writers:
Ichirō Miyagawa, Teruo Ishii.
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Shigeru Amachi as Koji Machida |
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Utako Mitsuya as Misako |
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Yōko Mihara as Maya |
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Toshio Hosokawa as Goro Torii |
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Reiko Seto as Reiko Onuma |
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Kyôko Yashiro as Chiaki |
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Junko Uozumi as Kaneko Sano |
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Hiroshi Ayukawa as Hotel manager |
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Yuji Munakata as Joe |
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Jun Ōtomo as Yukichi Tachibana |
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Masaru Kodaka as Photo seller |
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Ryuji Moriyama as Taizo |
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Hiroshi Asami as Kayoko (gay boy) |
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Miho Jo as Hotel maid Tokiko |
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Kuniko Yamamura as Kayo |
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Yoko Nanbara as Emi Hamaguchi |
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Kyōko Katsura as Kyôko |
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Keiko Minakami as Singapore (waitress) |
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Masayo Yoshida as Ranko Kuroki |
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Masao Takamatsu as Old man at boat store |
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Yoji Naruto as Sabu |
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Sōten Kuni as Manager |
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Daijiro Kikukawa as Namikawa |
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Tomohiko Ôtani as Old man at mannequin store |
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Ken Kawahara as |
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Kazuhiko Saeki as |
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Shogo Sakane as Gay boy B |
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Kyoji Murayama as Policeman |
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Seiji Hara as Grocery store clerk |
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Takashi Yamaguchi as |
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Minoru Miyake as |
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Kôichi Miya as Detective Kondo |
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Yūzō Harumi as Detective Suzuki |
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Hiroaki Kurahashi as Detective Inoue |
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Eisuke Sakauchi as |
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Kyōko Ōgimachi as |
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Eiko Wakaroku as |
| Directing | Teruo Ishii | Director |
| Production | Mitsugi Okura | Executive Producer |
| Camera | Jugyo Yoshida | Director of Photography |
| Lighting | Akira Yaguchi | Lighting Technician |
| Sound | Hisao Negishi | Sound Recordist |
| Art | Keiji Miyazawa | Art Direction |
| Sound | Chumei Watanabe | Original Music Composer |
| Directing | Kichitarō Shibata | Assistant Director |
| Editing | Hideo Kashima | Editor |
| Writing | Ichirō Miyagawa | Screenplay |
| Writing | Teruo Ishii | Screenplay |
