HOUSE OF BAMBOO

US, 1955, 102 minutes, Colour.
Robert Stack, Robert Ryan, Shirley Yamaguchi, Sessue Hayakawa, Brad Dexter, Biff Elliot, Cameron Mitchell.
Directed by Samuel Fuller.

House of Bamboo is a colourful wide-screen thriller of the mid-'fifties starring Robert Ryan and Robert Stack. It was directed by Samuel Fuller who is noted for his no-holds-barred, action films and is well respected by French critics. He tells a story very directly even in such 'B’ material as this. Fuller has worked his thriller films in several Eastern settings, for example, China Gate and The Crimson Kimono. It is interesting to see how well the gangster conventions are transported to Japanese exotic settings.

1. An entertaining thriller? Gangsters in Japan?

2. How well did the film transplant American gangster genre conventions to Japan? The robberies, the gang, the army strategies, the personalities of leader, undercover agents, neurotic second?in?charge, members of the gang? Women? The trapping, betrayal, the final shootout? Were the conventions influenced very much by the Japanese setting?

3. The emphasis on the look of Japan? The beauty of the colour photography and the Japanese way of life? Music? The special effects, especially the final shoot?out on top of the store?

4. How credible was the plot in terms of the American occupation of Japan? Gangsterism and detection? sufficient for the purposes of this thriller?

5. Eddie Spanier as a credible hero? His first impressions, down and out, surly? His insinuating himself into the gang? Did the audience believe that he was a criminal? His relationship with Mariko and persuading her to be with him? His participation in the robbery, his being shot and allowed to live by Sandy Dawson against the rules? surprise at the revelation of his real identity? The transition with the discovery his identity, his playing along with Sandy, using Mariko to inform the Army, his being seen at the attempted robbery? The final confrontation and the importance of his shooting Dawson? Robert Stack*s style? This kind of American Army detective? His explanation of himself and his family and his background? The love for Marika? His feeling toward Dawson and the members of the gang?

6. Mariko and her being a widow, her decisions and the motivation for helping Spanier? The dangers in which the was involved? Informing the army?

7. Robert Ryan's style an the megalomaniac gang leader? His obsessions? His always being right? His style, control of the gang, use of army tactics? The brutality of the killings with the robberies? His thinking that he was right and his murder of Criff? His realising the truth and his setting the stage in the store? His miscalculations and the shootout? A credible criminal?

8. The other members of the gang, especially Criff and his losing control?

9. How memorable was the opening with the swift presentation of the crime and the killings? The transition to the death of Mariko's husband? The Japanese police? Spanier's arrival and his trying to insinuate himself by protection? The discovery of the gang? Did the film keep its pace?

10. The robbery sequences? The final build-up to the robbery which was called off? The shoot-out?

11. How well did the film use Japanese scenery. locations and atmosphere?

12. The staging of the final shoot-out with the people on the roof, the children, the wheel? The inevitability of the ending?

13. Themes of good and evil? Crime? Heroism? Truth, betrayal, greed, pride and madness?