The Age of Assassins
The Age of Assassins (殺人狂時代, Satsujinkyō jidai) is a 1967 Japanese film directed by Kihachi Okamoto.
| The Age of Assassins | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Kihachi Okamoto |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Rokuro Nishigaki |
| Edited by | Yoshitami Kuroiwa |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Toho |
Release date |
|
Running time | 99 minutes |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
Plot
A nerdy young college instructor named Shinji Kikyo returns home one day to find himself the target of a mad assassin. Surviving somewhat miraculously, he fends off other assassins and, with the help of the reporter Keiko Tsurumaki and the car mechanic Bill Otomo, eventually discovers that a "population control" association is really an assassination squad led by Shogo Mizorogi, who has been training patients in a mental asylum to become killers. Along the way, it starts to appear that Shinji may not be the mild-mannered academic he seemed at first, but a well-trained secret agent.
Cast
| Tatsuya Nakadai | Shinji Kikyo |
| Reiko Dan | Keiko Tsurumaki |
| Hideo Sunazuka | Bill Otomo |
| Hideyo Amamoto | Shogo Mizorogi |
| Keiichi Taki | Ikeno |
| Seishirô Kuno | Man with crutch |
| Tatsuyoshi Ehara | Aochi (as Tatsuya Ebara) |
| Yasuzō Ogawa | Mabuchi |
| Atsuko Kawaguchi | Yumie Komatsu |
| Wataru Ōmae | Oba-Q |
| Shin Ibuki | Atom |
| Hiroshi Hasegawa | Solan |
| Masaya Nihei | Pappy |
Release
The Age of Assassins was released in Japan on February 4, 1967.[1] The film was released in the United States by Toho International with an international title of Epoch of Murder Madness in 1967.[2]
Reception
The critic Chris Desjardins has written that "Age of Assassins is another sharp-edged lampoon that works just as well as an action film, and compares favorably with such other brilliant, tongue-in-cheek mod sixties masterpieces as Elio Petri's The Tenth Victim and Seijun Suzuki's Branded to Kill."[3]
References
Footnotes
- Galbraith IV 2008, p. 236.
- Galbraith IV 1996, p. 95.
- Desjardins, Chris (27 May 2005). Outlaw Masters of Japanese Film. I.B.Tauris. p. 90. ISBN 9781845110901. Retrieved 6 November 2016.
Sources
- Galbraith IV, Stuart (1996). The Japanese Filmography: 1900 through 1994. McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-0032-3.
- Galbraith IV, Stuart (2008). The Toho Studios Story: A History and Complete Filmography. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-1461673743. Retrieved October 29, 2013.