The Tokyo Mighty Guy (1960)

Fresh and Exciting

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Attempting to watch this yesterday,I found that my Blu-Ray player was not in the mood to work,so I ended up watching the excellent Danger Pays on DVD instead. Fixing the player,I got set to find out how mighty this guy is.The plot:Returning from his education in Paris, teenager Jirô Shimizu decides to open a French bistro. As the bistro is getting built, a former Prime Minister crashes his car into the building. Whilst he stands up to authority,Shimizu's girlfriend Hideko Matsuda catches the eye of gangsters.View on the film:A match for their Danger Pays transfer in the same set, Arrow present a clean soundtrack and a crystal clear image. Basking the movie in a Jazzy title track,director Buichi Saitô & cinematographer Kuratarô Takamura tap to the beat of the 1950's Golden Age of Hollywood. Saitô and Kuratarô Takamura outstanding colour-coding that makes the sharp clothes and backgrounds be highly stylish,and also subtly reflecting the youthful optimism in the new age of the teenager. Pointing the Nikkatsu "Diamond Guys" to the early swings of the 60's, the screenplay by Tsuyoshi Ishigôoka and Takeo Matsuura wonderfully dress Shimizu's (played by a dynamic Akira Kobayashi) in the changing attitudes and lifestyles gaining ground,from Shimizu being educated abroad,to going against the grain of being put in the corner,by Shimizu standing up against the "Diamond Guys."

After mastering the art of French cuisine, young Jiro (Akira Kobayashi) returns to Japan and opens a restaurant in the busy streets of Ginza. His dashing looks, iconoclastic culinary skills, and charismatic character attracts not only women, but unwanted trouble. Things get personal when he finds out that a scandalous political figure is trying to take over his girlfriend's business.We start out with what seems like it might be another Nikkatsu gangster film, with women in the bathroom slapping each other. That is always a good thing. But then it gets more silly, almost like a French musical... like "Girls of Rochefort". As a noted scholar said, there is "nothing intrinsically Japanese about Nikkatsu films in the 1960s". And this film proves it.One thing this film had me wondering: do they actually play "Here Comes the Bride" in Japan? They do in this film, and that seems very strange to me, especially because we have English words to go with the tune. Do they have different words? And how did this get to be a universal wedding song?