Wizard-8 "House of Bamboo" is an interesting noir on several levels, the most obvious being that it's not only shot in color, but shot on location in Japan just ten years after World War II has ended. The surroundings give the movie some really interesting visuals and a look at a culture that has seriously changed more than 50 years since. The story, concerning the exploitation and crimes against Japanese businesses and people by expat Americans also has some interest. It would have been better, however, if the story had been shortened in some aspects. Not by eliminating whole scenes, but shortening some. The movie is kind of slow at times. On the other hand, the subplot involving the growing romance with Shirley Yamaguchi's character seems somewhat unfinished; it's unclear at the end of the movie where the relationship is heading. And the bad guys make some really dumb decisions at times.Despite these flaws, I think the movie has enough interest to warrant a look. It is a Sam Fuller movie after all!

Scott44 I recommend "Noir meets Noh: Fuller's remake of Street With No Name" (bmacv from Western New York; 25 February 2002) which has interesting details. Another reviewer thinks Douglas Sirk would have made a better film (Technical skill props up lame story; Pokerface11 from Chicago; 18 September 2002).One commentator makes interesting points but I don't agree with them (Really good, but at about 90 minutes into the film the script went haywire.; planktonrules from Bradenton, Florida; 8 January 2009). Another doesn't like the romance (A Near Miss; bensonmum2 from Tennessee; 23 July 2005)."House of Bamboo" is a lesser, campy, 1950s noir thriller with plot holes that are ridiculous. I didn't like it much at first. We see a train robbery that is fairly comical; i.e., men surprise and quickly overwhelm the train personnel who simply collapse like pillows. An announcer intones the virtues of the US military. The propaganda is cheesy.The fact that the US Army is investigating the Tokyo robbery might have been revealed with a line or two of dialog. However, this has to be conveyed with gravity by the announcer (who wants you to have a positive reaction to this reasonably ordinary plot development).Shortly afterward we have a tortuous scene where a dying man is being interrogated in the ER. The camera is overhead and the audience experience is painful.Stack (as "Eddie Kenner") is the Ugly American interrupting everyone's conversation demanding information. The movie finally arrives (for me) when there is a splendid tracking shot where Fuller follows a Japanese theater company's rehearsal by moving with a male figure in traditional attire. Following this, the pursuit of Mariko (Shirley Yamaguchi) is very well done.The camp arrives when Stack meets Robert Ryan and his gang after punching two idiot pachinko managers who are both quite free with their money. However, the film begins to pick up steam as Stack joins Ryan's gang. Suspicion over the new hood leads to an investigation which thrusts Stack and Yamaguchi together. Their growing romance is very interesting, with the exception of a painful moment when Stack prefers to eat in the bathtub rather than reveal his nudity to Yamaguchi, despite making the initial move inviting her to stay.Ryan's gang consists of dishonorably-discharged ex-military types who dress in slick suits when not in action. The gang adheres to a "no wounded man lives" code (i.e., gang members shoot their own wounded). At the same time, they engage in some of the most dangerous robberies ever conceived; they attack heavily-fortified institutions in broad daylight (with large teams of Japanese police and/or commando squads) in pursuit.However, tension does mount as Ryan leads his gang to a third robbery, and then is forced to call it off. The jewel heist (fourth robbery) begins with a proprietor who couldn't imagine he would ever be robbed by dangerous men. Ryan's actions in the fourth robbery are so unbelievable they are best not described. The concluding sequence is visually compelling, but overly violent.Robert Ryan and Shirley Yamaguchi are the acting standouts. Ryan delivers another creepy psychopath (in his respectable list of them). Yamaguchi is solid as the widow who shows Stack some Japanese love. Stack is acceptable (but not irreplaceable). Star Treks's DeForest Kelley is wasted; inexplicably he's cast as a ruthless criminal when his manners are more recognizable in a country club.Despite the obvious flaws "House of Bamboo" is worth seeing. It is often very interesting visually, and the cast showed up to be in something great.

bkoganbing House Of Bamboo came out in 1955 three years after the Japanese Peace Treaty effectively ended the occupation of Japan that began post World War II. Americans must have been familiar sight on the streets of Japanese cities still in 1955, we certainly had enough military personnel there. If you don't recognize that fact than you will be puzzled as to how a gang of Americans crooks could operate the way they do in the streets of Tokyo.For those of you who don't recognize it screenwriter Harry Kleiner took the screenplay he wrote for the Henry Hathaway classic, The Street With No Name and set in down in post occupation Japan. Robert Ryan plays the gang leader part that Richard Widmark had. He's recruited a gang of former military misfits who spent more time in the stockade than in combat and made them into an effective heist gang. Ryan's got other interests, but his main income is from some well planned robberies.The USA military intelligence gets involved when Ryan hijacks a train with military hardware and kills a soldier. Going undercover is Robert Stack in the Mark Stevens part. Unlike The Street With No Name, Stack's allowed a little romance here in the person of Japanese actress Shirley Yamaguchi. In The Street With No Name it was Widmark who had the girlfriends and Stevens was strictly business. Sessue Hayakawa is also in the cast as the Japanese police inspector.There's a gay subtext in the film with the relationship of Ryan with his number two, Cameron Mitchell. When Stack starts to take his place in the gang hierarchy, Mitchell reactions are of pure jealousy. In fact Mitchell's reactions are what sets in motion the climax of the film.Which you know if you've seen The Street With No Name. House Of Bamboo boasts some mighty nice location shots of postwar Tokyo which looking at it you would hardly believe what a difference a decade might make. The title House Of Bamboo is the place that Ryan lives in and it's a pre-war structure typical of the Tokyo before General Doolittle inaugurated US bombing raids. Those wooden houses went up like tinder boxes. Note the more modern look Tokyo has in 1955.The color might disqualify House Of Bamboo from the genre, but the film as the look and feel of a good noir film. Which is as good a recommendation as I can give it.

OldAle1 I was pretty excited about another Fuller film after being pleasantly surprised by his first two films seen the previous week, both of which were better than their reputations. Well, everyone has their missteps and this one seems to me to be a minor and fairly pointless film from this great director. A remake of the 1948 B&W noir Street with No Name, this moves the action -- a tale of an undercover cop trying to infiltrate and ultimately take down a big crime boss -- to occupied Japan, widens the screen to 'scope format and adds bright color. Small-time hood Eddie Kenner (Robert Stack) is ostensibly in Japan to make contact with an old friend who turns out to have recently been murdered, perhaps by his own organization, a pachinko parlor cartel run by Sandy Dawson (Robert Ryan). Stack makes friends with the dead man's widow Mariko (Shirley Yamaguchi) and worms his way into Ryan's group which of course turns out to be in business for more than just a few yen from gambling parlors.The action moves reasonably well, and the location shooting is nice (first American film made in Japan, apparently), but it just wasn't gripping to me and far too predictable; the earlier version is better as are quite a number of similar-themed films from the past few years. Worth seeing for Fuller completists, and one of his few color 'scope films, but don't expect anything on the level of Park Row or Pickup on South Street. DVD rental.