Generally agreed upon to be Suzuki's finest work, the film charts the progress of 'Number 3 Killer' Hanado, an ice-cool Japanese hitman who get more than he bargained for when he agrees to make a hit for a beautiful girl. On the run and in danger from all sides, Hanado must ultimately face the 'No.1 Killer'... A surreal and stunning fusion of '60's pop-aesthetic, yakuza thriller, raucous sex, perverse desires, staggering violence and delirious nightmare, Branded To Kill is a unique thriller and a towering work of Art. Nikkatsu, the studio that financed the film, found the film was so intense and incomprehensible that Suzuki was immediately fired! Today it is regarded as his masterpiece.
