80 minutes
1/13/1960
Freelance reporter “Scoop” Machida is hot on the trail of a prostitution ring called the Black Line, when he is framed for the murder of a young woman. Forced to clear his own name, the handsome journalist sinks deeper into the Black Line’s rotten swamp of drugs, prostitution, and murder and finds unexpected help in Maya, a steamy female gambler familiar with the neon-lit streets, shadowy alleyways, and seedy nightclubs he must navigate. The closest film in the Line series to classic American film noir, Ishii’s Black Line is a pulpy assortment of crime film conventions including the starkly expressionistic black and white cinematography by Jûgyô Yoshida, a jazzy music score by Michiaki Watanabe, and a sleazy screenplay by Ishii and Ichirô Miyagawa.
Shigeru Amachi
as Koji Machida
Utako Mitsuya
as Misako
Yōko Mihara
as Maya
Toshio Hosokawa
as Goro Torii
Reiko Seto
as Reiko Onuma
Kyôko Yashiro
as Chiaki
Junko Uozumi
as Kaneko Sano
Hiroshi Ayukawa
as Hotel manager
Yuji Munakata
as Joe
Jun Ōtomo
as Yukichi Tachibana
Masaru Kodaka
as Photo seller
Ryuji Moriyama
as Taizo
Hiroshi Asami
as Kayoko (gay boy)
Miho Jo
as Hotel maid Tokiko
Kuniko Yamamura
as Kayo
Yoko Nanbara
as Emi Hamaguchi
Kyōko Katsura
as Kyôko
Keiko Minakami
as Singapore (waitress)
Masayo Yoshida
as Ranko Kuroki
Masao Takamatsu
as Old man at boat store
Yoji Naruto
as Sabu
Sōten Kuni
as Manager
Daijiro Kikukawa
as Namikawa
Tomohiko Ôtani
as Old man at mannequin store
Ken Kawahara
Kazuhiko Saeki
Shogo Sakane
as Gay boy B
Kyoji Murayama
as Policeman
Seiji Hara
as Grocery store clerk
Takashi Yamaguchi
Minoru Miyake
Kôichi Miya
as Detective Kondo
Yūzō Harumi
as Detective Suzuki
Hiroaki Kurahashi
as Detective Inoue
Eisuke Sakauchi
Kyōko Ōgimachi
Eiko Wakaroku