Japanese director Yasuzô Masumura was one of the most consistent and prolific during the “long tail” of noir outside the U.S., his work known for its cynicism, complexity, and darkness, as often expressed in colorless titles: Black Test Car (1962), The Black Report (1963), and this one, Kuro no chôtokkyu aka Black Superexpress or Superexpress. It’s a tale of blackmail on top of blackmail on top of blackmail (“Kill her yourself; if you hire a hitman, they’ll blackmail you”) among the most powerful elite in postwar Japan, Inc. (one character compares large corporations to the daimyo, or feudal lords that ruled Japan for most of its history). The film is cold, its misanthropy off the charts, its characters ruthless. When Keiichi (Jirô Tamiya) is hired by banker Nakae (Daisuke Katô) as an agent to buy up real estate from local landowners in the countryside to make room for an automotive factory, what Nakae doesn’t tell him is that he plans to sell the land to the government for multiples more profit; it seems Nakae has insider knowledge that a corporation called Shinkansen has been contracted to build a high-speed train through the region, which, of course, requires purchasing the land. Enraged that he’s been used and cheated, Keiichi seeks revenge — and a lot more money — by tailing Nakae into his world of elite corruption, which leads him to Yoko (Yukiko Fuji), a former secretary at Shinkansen who is now connected sexually to the man running the company, Zaitsu (Eiji Funakoshi). When Keiichi recruits Yoko to his side, the betrayals and power plays start stacking up. Katô is outstanding as the despicable banker, oozing poison wherever he goes (“I’m just a stray dog”), and Yamauchi’s score is lively, if a bit schizophrenic, building momentum scene by scene.