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ABSTRACT
The article closely reviews Nomura Yoshitarō’s 1958 film Harikomi (Stakeout), which despite its widespread acclaim remains relatively understudied, in light of a specifically Japanese generic appropriation of the American cinematic mode known as film noir. While genre and mode are typically regarded as distinct categories, I intentionally conflate them to argue that the film transcends and problematizes conventional categorizations of film noir as a subgenre, suggesting the formation of an alternative category. Instead of classifying the film within an established genre or cinematic movement, I position it within a line of Japanese films that intertwine social, cultural, and national media discourses. This line, I posit, offers a critical perspective on Japanese society and presents a dark vision, although not necessarily a subversive one. To limit the scope to more readily identifiable patterns, I frame the discussion around style to contend that Stakeout draws a line for a specifically Japanese kind of film noir. Thus, while the following analysis primarily centres on one film, the overarching objective of the article is to establish Stakeout as a pivotal point that is in line with both preceding and subsequent productions in terms of narrative and cinematic form.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 See, for example, Schwartz (Citation2005, vii).
2 For European noir (see Spicer Citation2007); for non-western noir, a recent example of is Yau and Williams (Citation2017).
3 For a brief discussion on these films in the context of the ‘Other’ or alternative to Hollywood’s mainstream noir (see: James Naremore Citation2008, 229).
4 For transnational Japanese noir, (see Miyao Citation2019, 109–116). For questioning the national category, Alexander Zahlten (Citation2017) writes throughout his monograph about ‘films from Japan’ rather than Japanese films.
5 For more on the Japanese postwar programme picture (see: Amit Citation2019).
6 Admittedly, the studio did produce films that could be thought of as precursors to the noir-line, with films such as Kinoshita Keisuke’s 1956 Taiyō to bara (Rose on his Arm), and Kobayashi Masaki’s 1957 Kuroi kawa (Black River). The screenplay for Kobayashi’s film was even written by Matsuyama Zenzō, whose novels inspired films that I consider as pertaining to the Japanese noir line. However, neither Kobayashi nor Kinoshita were consistent in developing noir films with a specifically local flavour as I argue here that Nomura has done.
7 Stakeout too was supposed to be released in 1957, but the production was prolonged to satisfy Nomura’s expanding vision for the film.
8 The novel first appeared in instalments on the pages of the weekly magazine, Tabi, from February 1957, until January 1958.
9 Television features as a form of alibi in Suzuki’s Voice without Shadow, and many Matsumoto of works were adapted into television dramas, including Stakeout, by KRT Terebi channel in 1959, by NHK in 1962, by NET Terebi in 1963, and by Kansai Terebi in 1966, to name just a few examples from the same time frame.
10 In Bungeishunjū’s 1989 grand survey, Stakeout was voted 94 among 150 greatest Japanese films of all time.
11 For example, (see: Philips Citation2009a, 43–44).
12 Edward Dimendberg points out that centrifugal space in noir films serves to reconfigure bodily experience and valorize speed (Dimendberg Citation2004, 169).
13 For such discussion in the noir context (see, for example: Biderman, and Devlin Citation2008, 229–246).
14 One notable, albeit minor, exception is Matsumoto’s appearance in Kaze no shisen (dir. Kawazu Yoshirō, 1963).
15 Hyōten was based on a Miyura Asako novel that was adapted into a television drama even before Yamamoto’s film.
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Rea Amit
Rea Amit is Assistant Professor in the Department of Modern Languages, Literatures and Linguistics at the University of Oklahoma. He is currently completing a book manuscript tentatively titled Programed Viewership: Japanese Televisuality, Seriality, and Film as a Social Medium.