One of several “Line” films set in and around Japanese prostitution rings in the late 50’s and early 60’s (and the only one shot in color), Teruo Ishii’s strange, fast-paced Ôsen chitai (US: Yellow Line) essentially stars Kobe’s seedy, wretched red district: drug dens and brothels, muted colors and labyrinthine, urine-soaked alleys, a variety of grotesque denizens from straight out of Bladerunner — or the cantina scene from Star Wars. Shigeru Amachi stars as a Tokyo hit man hired to off a man he was told was a scumbag criminal, but who was actually the respected head of the customs office for the city of Kobe. Outraged by this betrayal of his occupational principles, he sets out to find the man who paid for the hit job, kidnapping pretty Emi Ozuki (Yôko Mihara) to play his decoy wife on the journey to Kobe. The film explodes with life (and death) in the city’s sleazy Casbah district where the couple set up home base in a “hotel” while navigating the network of creepy dealers, pimps, and whores, including a helpful, has-been sex slave called “the Moor” whose clearly Caucasian body is slathered in bronze paint. Despite her captivity, the shrewd Emi appears fearless, even enthusiastic for much of the time, even as the hotel proprietor attempts to sell her into sex slavery (“I’m sorry, but this is a respectable hotel,” the hotelier says when asked if she sells drugs). Watanbe’s unique score begins with heartbeat-like percussion and moves into acoustic guitar accompaniment for the remainder of the drama.