Review of House of Bamboo (1955) by Josè M — 06 Sep 2011

AKA Tokyo Story. This film is often cited as a film noir in colour, but while the story seems to house some noir elements, the style of the piece rarely backs that up. It is visually very pleasing throughout however and the rooftop setting for the finale is simply stunning.

It is by no means Ryan's greatest performance, but he proves he has a skill level way beyond Robert Stack as the pair scrape through some terrible dialogue and often repetitive narrative choices. I saw a film print of this on the big screen at Film Forum in Downtown New York which was quite a treat, but I'd actually forgotten just how annoying American cinema audiences can be.

As is usual, two or three pretentious wankers tried to show the rest of us how knowledgeable they were by placing loud mocking laughter at the moments of poor dialogue and spoiled much of the enjoyment I might have had because, while House of Bamboo generally feels under developed and an out of step noir in its colourful Japanese setting, it is a brave and odd film that has some memorable moments.

Like an old friend of mine once said: "When I have enough money I'm going to build myself a cinema, and it'll have one fucking seat".