MAN WITH A SHOTGUN / SHOTTOGAN NO OTOKO (1961)
Directed by Seijun Suzuki
84 minutes
"Samurai movies often operate similarly to westerns (part of why SEVEN SAMURAI and YOJIMBO were later remade Stateside), but rarely do you see an actual Japanese western." –Kyle Warner, CITY ON FIRE THE MAN WITH A SHOTGUN is a high point in the first five years of director Seijun Suzuki's career within Nikkatsu's "Borderless Action" series. Drawing inspiration from Hollywood and the French New Wave, Suzuki's works for Nikkatsu blended East and West, movie-fueled fantasies, and gritty realities of life in postwar Japan.