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 Intimidation is an elegantly stripped-down and carefully paced crime drama.
Direction
Kurahara turns cramped spaces into psychological battlegrounds.
Acting
Kō Nishimura's simmering resentment is a masterclass in restraint.
Cinematography
Shadows so sharp they'll cut your ambitions to shreds.
Director
Koreyoshi Kurahara
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Released during Japan's postwar economic boom, the film channels anxieties about corporate loyalty and the dark underbelly of salaryman culture.
Kurahara made this between his delinquent-youth films and his later experimental works—it's the precise pivot point of his career.
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