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Black Line
First aired on Jan 13, 1960
60%

Genres: Crime

Freelance reporter “Scoop” Machida is hot on the trail of a prostitution ring called the Black Line, when he is framed for the murder of a young woman. Forced to clear his own name, the handsome journalist sinks deeper into the Black Line’s rotten swamp of drugs, prostitution, and murder and finds unexpected help in Maya, a steamy female gambler familiar with the neon-lit streets, shadowy alleyways, and seedy nightclubs he must navigate. The closest film in the Line series to classic American film noir, Ishii’s Black Line is a pulpy assortment of crime film conventions including the starkly expressionistic black and white cinematography by Jûgyô Yoshida, a jazzy music score by Michiaki Watanabe, and a sleazy screenplay by Ishii and Ichirô Miyagawa.

Featured Cast: click image to view more
Shigeru Amachi | Koji Machida
Utako Mitsuya | Misako
Yōko Mihara | Maya
Toshio Hosokawa | Goro Torii
Reiko Seto | Reiko Onuma
Kyôko Yashiro | Chiaki
Featured Crew
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Teruo Ishii | Director
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Mitsugi Okura | Executive Producer
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Akira Yaguchi | Lighting Technician
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Hisao Negishi | Sound Recordist
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Hideo Kashima | Editor
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Keiji Miyazawa | Art Direction