Japanese director Seijun Suzuki, whose style would become more explosive and over-the-top throughout the 1960’s, wasn’t an automatic fit for the film noir ethos because he often seemed to be having too much fun with violence and suffering in his films. ‘Jûsangô taihisen’ yori: Sono gosôsha o nerae (US: Take Aim at the Police Van) is one of his earlier, more traditional crime stories, yet even this film’s convoluted plot and frequent leaps of logic are likely to puzzle — but entertain — fans of the noir cycle. Daijirô Tamon (Michitarô Mizushima) is the prison guard on duty when two convicts are sniped and killed while being transported in the titular van; when Tamon is penalized with a six-month leave of absence, he takes it upon himself to investigate the incident and find the killers. He soon identifies one of the victims as a “recruiter” of hookers for the Hamuju Agency, which is run by young, attractive Yûko Hamajima (Misako Watanabe), daughter of the agency’s recently incarcerated owner. Yûko seems to be following Tamon as he uncovers new leads and makes new connections, but is she friend or foe? Someone or something named Akiba becomes the object of Tamon’s investigation, but its identity will prove stubbornly elusive. Suzuki packs the film with action: whores are chased through the street, gunfights erupt by the train tracks, characters are subject to outrageous forms of execution (the prolonged truck stunt is thoroughly ludicrous), and a woman is killed by bow and arrow (note: this isn’t the only death by archery in film noir, but it’s the only one in which the victim is naked). Through it all, Suzuki’s playful camera tricks are already on display at this early stage of his career: note the insert shot of a cigarette ash getting blasted off by a slow-motion bullet.