Sono Gososha O Nerae (aka Take Aim At The Police Van) (1960)

Efficient pulpy crime thriller is probably the least impressive of the Seijun Suzuki (YOUTH OF THE BEAST) films I’ve seen so far. When a police van transporting prisoners is attacked which causes numerous fatalities, the penitentiary guard (Michitaro Mizushima) is deemed at fault and suspended. He takes it upon himself to track down those responsible for the attack and the unexplained motive of the attack. The plot is somewhat convoluted and confusing but Suzuki’s direction pushes it swiftly along so that we don’t have much time to dwell on it. The film’s setpiece is a trail of fire following a gasoline truck leaking gas as Mizushima and Misako Watanabe (as the film’s femme fatale) desperately try to get free of their bonds before the truck blows up. After that, the film’s shoot out in a train yard seems like an anti-climax.