Koreyoshi Kurahara directs Aru kyôhaku (US: Intimidation) with such economical precision that its running time of just over an hour seems impossible. A recently promoted and universally lauded bank executive is forced to rob his own bank to pay off a blackmailer who has evidence of his prior embezzlement: in other words, bank robbery just leads to more bank robbery, but in cruder form. Nobuo Kaneko plays the banker, Takita, who plans the robbery for when his unambitious and easily intimidated childhood friend Nakaie (Kô Nishimura) has night watchman duty. Donned with a mask and a handgun, Takita seems to pull off the heist as smoothly as he’d envisioned, but when Nakaike betrays a hint of recognition, the plot makes a twist, and then another, and then another. Cinematographer Yoshihiro Yamazaki deftly builds tension by utilizing plentiful overhead shots to portray the fallibility of mortal men and lots of sweaty close-ups to reveal their inner turmoil, so the final confrontation on the side of a cliff feels like relief.