Freelance reporter “Scoop” Machida is hot on the trail of a prostitution ring called the Black Line, when he is framed for the murder of a young woman. Forced to clear his own name, the handsome journalist sinks deeper into the Black Line’s rotten swamp of drugs, prostitution, and murder and finds unexpected help in Maya, a steamy female gambler familiar with the neon-lit streets, shadowy alleyways, and seedy nightclubs he must navigate. The closest film in the Line series to classic American film noir, Ishii’s Black Line is a pulpy assortment of crime film conventions including the starkly expressionistic black and white cinematography by Jûgyô Yoshida, a jazzy music score by Michiaki Watanabe, and a sleazy screenplay by Ishii and Ichirô Miyagawa.
Teruo Ishii | Director |
Mitsugi Okura | Executive Producer |
Akira Yaguchi | Lighting Technician |
Hisao Negishi | Sound Recordist |
Hideo Kashima | Editor |
Keiji Miyazawa | Art Direction |
Chumei Watanabe | Original Music Composer |
Kichitarô Shibata | Assistant Director |
Jugyo Yoshida | Director of Photography |
Ichirō Miyagawa | Screenplay |