Eight Hours of Terror (1957)
Directed by Seijun Suzuki
Genres - Drama, Crime |
Sub-Genres - Crime Thriller |
Run Time - 78 min. |
Countries - Japan |
MPAA Rating - NR
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Synopsis by Robert Firsching
This standard Japanese melodrama was heavily re-edited after director Seijun Suzuki (under his real name, Seitaro Suzuki) turned it into a comedy rather than the intended crime-thriller. The plot concerns a passenger train which is stalled when a typhoon wrecks the tracks. The commuters are offloaded onto a shuttle bus, which is then taken over by a pair of sadistic gangsters. Nikkatsu Studios attempted to remove Suzuki's comedic touches, but in doing so they hopelessly confused matters, leading to a peculiar but tedious film.
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Themes
Keywords
gangster, psychopath, rampage, sadist, stranded, train [locomotive], typhoon