https://vo.rs/tags/branded-to-kill/Latest from the Branded to Kill desk at vo.rs.Hugo -- gohugo.ioenThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.Wed, 08 Jul 2026 11:00:00 +0000https://vo.rs/screen/branded-to-kill-suzukis-hit-man-film-that-got-him-sacked/<p>In 1967 a Japanese studio director named Seijun Suzuki delivered a black-and-white gangster picture to his employers at Nikkatsu, and it cost him his career. The studio boss, Kyusaku Hori, watched <em>Branded to Kill</em>, declared it incomprehensible and unprofitable, and fired the man who made it. Suzuki, who had cranked out roughly forty programme pictures for Nikkatsu on tight budgets and tighter schedules, found himself blacklisted from the industry for the better part of a decade. He sued the studio and eventually won, but the years in the wilderness were real. He had been sacked, essentially, for making a film that was too much itself.</p>Wed, 08 Jul 2026 11:00:00 +0000