Black Line (1960)

Freelance reporter “Scoop” Machida is hot on the trail of a prostitution ring called the Black Line, when he is framed for the murder of a young woman. Forced to clear his own name, the handsome journalist sinks deeper into the Black Line’s rotten swamp of drugs, prostitution, and murder and finds unexpected help in Maya, a steamy female gambler familiar with the neon-lit streets, shadowy alleyways, and seedy nightclubs he must navigate. The closest film in the Line series to classic American film noir, Ishii’s Black Line is a pulpy assortment of crime film conventions including the starkly expressionistic black and white cinematography by Jûgyô Yoshida, a jazzy music score by Michiaki Watanabe, and a sleazy screenplay by Ishii and Ichirô Miyagawa.

Released Jan. 13, 1960 80 min None+

Genres: Crime

Keywords: tmdb.prostitute, tmdb.yakuza, imdb.male-police-officer, imdb.police-officer, imdb.police, imdb.prostitute, imdb.yakuza + 4 more, imdb.reporter, mdblist.belongs-to-collection, mdblist.collection-follow-up, tmdb.japanese-noir