Review: Seijun Suzuki is one of the sole reasons why I prefer Japanese cinema over Chinese films. There is a sense of style that is unmatched in Japanese culture, as if it were innate and natural for the land of the rising sun to display an impression of coolness and shade of class to everything they create in the world of art.

As with manga and anime, visual Japanese design and technique is overtly beautiful, containing sensations of magical surrealism and thousands of years of oriental culture in every pattern and motif in the imagery of their world. This can be seen in the historical designs of their old style homes and buildings, paintings and pottery, scriptures and writings, and even the samurai worlds of Japan's pre-modern period of Tokugawa and the turbulent Meiji Era.

And that is just the tip of it.

"Tokyo Drifter" is definitely no exception with its free for all neon jazz characters jiving to the boogie woogie backdrop of 1960's industrial Tokyo. A yakuza film of the purist form, way before it was romanticized in the mainstream in modern day cinema, Suzuki presents us characters of extreme brightness and colors that match the environments around them, following the Zen of their guns and continuing along the way of their ethics and codes no matter what end of the gangster spectrum they fall in.

What we have here is an iconic gangster lead, "Phoenix" Tetsu played marvelously by Tetsuya Watari. Part Spike Spiegel, part Vincent Vega, and more Jean-Paul Belmondo if anything, Tetsu isn't your run of the mill fickle gangster, but a true samurai by way of honor, loyalty and overall style. Even as the individualistic killer he is, he stays dedicated to his boss all the way through the gunfights in the beach club bops and the fist fights in the dive bar hops.

Though the story seems simple and straightforward at first, our lead is confronted with many different issues that wear on his psyche. As the last member of a once thriving yakuza, he is offered one of the highest positions it the rival gang. Though there are still some connections within his beloved Tokyo, he has to leave his mamasita and the city into the snowcapped valleys of Northern Japan to escape. These conflicts create an unyielding charismatic lead that becomes sympathetic and compassionate. In a one of the more beautiful scenes, Tetsu is entranced with a small carnival game, holding the replica pistol with his club singer love and holding her close and tight. His blue suit along with his stance and head tilts evokes an Alain Delon like pathos that becomes apparent as Tetsu continues to drift around, attempting to escape the yakuza that continually follow him everywhere he goes.

Probably the most stunning aspect of "Tokyo Drifter" is the amazing and uncompromising art direction. The colors and the beautiful tints to the sets that change with the action is an interesting concept that provides bold atmospheric mood changes. From the dance hall to the western style bar, the set design is unique in its portrayal to capture the sensibilities of pop art in flaunting the unreal and surreal world of "Tokyo Drifter's" characters. Even in the suits and clothes each gangster wears extends their personality in a more comic and flamboyant fashion. Suzuki especially got into trouble with this from the Nikkatsu Studios when he turned an old fashion gangster movie into a blown out, loud and ostentatious film satiated with lurid and gaudy action.