Toshio Masuda’s Sabita naifu (US: Rusty Knife) is a revenge tale through and through. When yakuza boss Seiji Katsumata (Naoki Sugiura) is arrested again, police assume nobody will testify against him out of fear, but hopes rise when it’s discovered that three young men had witnessed Katsumata and his thugs murdering a city councilman and hanging his body to make it look like suicide. When the three names get out, it’s a race between police and the yakuza to find the men and secure their cooperation, which, for Katsumata, means disappearing them. The first of the three to be killed is Shimabara, played by beloved Japanese star Jô Shishido, who, had he been born a bit earlier, might have rivaled Bogart, Gabin, or even his countryman Toshirô Mifune as an icon of the noir cycle. Two remain: the cocky, ambitious Makoto Terada (Akira Kobayashi) and the more mature, cautious Yukihiko Tachibana (Yûjirô Ishihara) who soon suspects that Katsumata’s men were responsible for the past gang rape and murder of his girlfriend. Having learned that her father was actually murdered, the councilman’s daughter Keiko (Mie Kitahara) readily attaches herself to Tachibana and his mission of revenge. Masuta bathes the film in darkness and inserts just enough pathos and visual beauty (the final shots — at a landfill of all places! — are majestic and moving) to complement the fast-paced action and elevate the film above its peers of the period.