Live stream preview

Watch this video and more on The Criterion Channel

Watch this video and more on The Criterion Channel

Start your free trial

Already subscribed? Sign in

Noir

Black River

1h 50m

Directed by Masaki Kobayashi • 1956 • Japan

Perhaps Masaki Kobayashi's most sordid film, BLACK RIVER examines the rampant corruption on and around U.S. military bases in Japan following World War II. Kobayashi spirals out from the story of a love triangle that develops between a good-natured student, his innocent girlfriend, and a coldhearted petty criminal (Tatsuya Nakadai, in his first major role) to reveal a nation slowly succumbing to lawlessness and violence.

Up Next in Noir

  • He Ran All the Way
    1:17:56
    He Ran All the Way

    He Ran All the Way

    Directed by John Berry • 1951 • United States
    Starring John Garfield, Shelley Winters, Wallace Ford

    John Garfield’s final film before his blacklisting and untimely death is a slam-bang pulp noir crackling with tightly wound tension. In one of his finest performances, Garfield plays a hardened so...

  • Intimidation
    1:05:48
    Intimidation

    Intimidation

    Directed by Koreyoshi Kurahara • 1960 • Japan

    Koreyoshi Kurahara's ingeniously plotted, pocket-size noir concerns the intertwined fates of a desperate bank manager, blackmailed for book-cooking, and his resentful but timid underling, passed over for a promotion. The marvelously moody Intimidatio...

  • Stakeout
    1:56:05
    Stakeout

    Stakeout

    Directed by Yoshitaro Nomura • 1958 • Japan
    Starring Minoru Oki, Seiji Miyaguchi, Hideko Takamine

    When a pair of a detectives lose the trail of a murder suspect, they camp out across the street from his ex-lover (Hideko Takamine) in hopes that she will lead them to their man. It’s the beginning ...

×