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.
as Koji Machida
as Misako
as Maya
as Goro Torii
as Reiko Onuma
as Chiaki
as Kaneko Sano
as Hotel manager
as Joe
as Yukichi Tachibana
as Photo seller
as Taizo
as Kayoko (gay boy)
as Hotel maid Tokiko
as Kayo
as Emi Hamaguchi
as Kyôko
as Singapore (waitress)
as Ranko Kuroki
as Old man at boat store
as Sabu
as Manager
as Namikawa
as Old man at mannequin store
as Gay boy B
as Policeman
as Grocery store clerk
as Detective Kondo
as Detective Suzuki
as Detective Inoue
