Black Line

Black Line

  • Overview
  • Cast
  • Crew
  • Recommendations

Status

Released

Release Date

Jan 13, 1960

Runtime

1h 20m

Genres

Crime

User Score

55%

Original Title

黒線地帯

Production Companies

Shintoho Company

Director

Teruo Ishii

Description

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.