Afraid to Die
Director: Yasuzo Masumura
Year Released: 1960
Rating: 1.0
Distinctive solely for the fact that it's one of the few films Japanese novelist and playwright Yukio Mishima starred in - he plays a thug caught up in a dangerous situation with the Yakuza. It certainly looks okay, but Mishima's place should have been with pen and paper instead of on screen, because the script is riddled with excessive plot exposition and filler: the characters are more interested in talking than shooting. Some of the critiques against Mishima's performance are perplexing - he's supposed to play a seedy, questionable narcissist and he pulls it off quite well (how this compares to Mishima's real-life personality is another debate for another day).
