This review may contain spoilers
Dragnet Girl is a mostly bloodless noir film featuring a gangster and his moll who were not nearly as bad as they thought they were.Joji is a washed-up boxer who turned to crime to make his living. Tokiko is his good time loving moll able to run scams on her own. Her target is the boss' son who keeps hitting on her at the office where she works her daytime job. Joji doesn't like the fact the boss is giving her jewelry, more importantly what she might be doing to earn the jewelry.
The characters come fast and furious, with almost no printed dialogue to help keep track. A young boxer, Hiroshi, tries to impress Joji at the boxing gym so that he can hire on with the stylish crook. So far life is good for Joji and Tokiko until he brings the kid aboard. Hiroshi's sister who works in a record store, complete with RCA's dog Victor cocking his head throughout the store, takes exception to her brother foregoing school to go down a dark path. Dressed in traditional garb she goes to Joji and begs him to turn her brother away. Joji takes an immediate liking to her, and it causes him to reflect on how he's living his life. Tokiko finds out about his desire for Kazuko and hunts the sister down with blood in her eye. Then as fate would have it, she too is charmed by Kazuko. And like Joji develops a sudden desire to go straight and live right. The last half of the film ramps up the tension and suspense in the storyline.
Director Ozu and cinematographer Shigehara Hideo made great use of light and shadow. Whether it was the shadows cast by the workers walking into the office, or faces and rooms half hid by shadow, they developed a proper noir film atmosphere. They highlighted everyday objects and architecture into beautiful composite frames. Outliers Joji and Tokiko were stylishly dressed in 1930's Western clothes. Sweet Kazuko, on the other hand, was always dressed and coifed traditionally. There was no music at all in the version I watched. Ozu did such fine work immersing the viewer into this world, that even though the film was silent you could almost hear the clacking of typewriter keys or a gun firing.
Oka Joji did a superb job showing Joji as dapper and invincible, then unravelling to a dejected and tormented man. Tanaka Kinuyo played the tough moll with a hidden heart of gold to perfection. Mizukubo Sumiko was given little to do as Kazuko except to float into and out of frame when needed and in brief moments, beg for her brother. Kazuko 's main role was to be the catalyst for Joji's and Tokiko's character development, with scant left over for the dutiful sister.
Dragnet Girl was an entertaining silent gangster film as it did not follow the mold of so many other crime movies. Ultimately, for me, it felt a little flat. The skill was there, the camera shots were lovely, and the actors did their jobs well. In the end, I remained unconvinced that quiet Kazuko could turn the two criminals lives upside-down like she did. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys old movies or old gangster movies as beauty is in the eye of the beholder when it comes to this genre of film.
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