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Robert Ryan, Robert Stack, Shirley Yamaguchi, Cameron Mitchell, Brad Dexter ... see more see more... , Sessue Hayakawa , Sandro Giglio , Harry Carey Jr. , Peter Gray , Robert Quarry , DeForest Kelley , John Doucette , Teru Shimada , Robert Okazaki , Barry Coe , Fred Dale , William "Wild Bill" Elliott , Fuji , Elko Hanabusa , Robert Kino , Rollin Moriyama , Neyle Morrow , Reiko Sato , Samuel Fuller , Biff Elliot , Bob Okazaki

Samuel Fuller directed and cowrote this typically hard-boiled drama set in Japan following World War II. Eddie Kenner (Robert Stack) is given a special assignment by the Army to get the inside story o... read more read more...n Sandy Dawson (Robert Ryan), a former GI who has formed a gang of fellow servicemen and Japanese locals who use their muscle to take over Tokyo's pachinko racket and commit a series of train robberies, targeting deliveries of military ammunition. Eddie is supposed to gather evidence on the murder of a soldier believed to have fallen in with the gang, and Eddie tries to blend in with the group to find out how they work. Hoping to learn more, Eddie also begins romancing Mariko (Shirley Yamaguchi), a Japanese woman who was married to the slain gangster, and he learns that the ruthless Dawson kills men who are injured during robberies rather than leave them behind to possibly testify against him. After a burglary goes wrong, Dawson becomes convinced that there's an informer in the group; wrongly believing it's Griff (Cameron Mitchell), Dawson kills his loyal soldier and makes Eddie his second in command. Veteran Japanese actor Sessue Hayakawa appears as Inspector Kito, a Japanese police detective working with Eddie to crack the case. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Flixster Users

63% liked it

937 ratings

Critics

92% liked it

13 critics

Unrated, 1 hr. 42 min.

Directed by: Samuel Fuller

Release Date: January 1, 1955

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DVD Release Date: June 7, 2005

Stats: 77 reviews

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Poster Shirley Yamaguchi and Robert Stack
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Flixster Reviews (77)

  • flixsterman
    April 1, 2011
    flixsterman
    This could have been a credible film noir piece were it not for the inept dialog, the brightly lit sets and the insistence that Japanese people are merely movie props to be placed here and there throughout the film like houseplants.
  • bbcfloridabound
    January 21, 2011
    bbcfloridabound
    January has been the month of House movies. That is watching movies with house in the title. This one filmed in 1954 in Japan a time when the United States had very little culture influence on that country and this film shows the old beauty of Japan. Loaded with a host of stars. ... read moreIts about a Gang of crooks from the US robbing different places in Japan, and during which a army soldier is killed and the army sends an undercover man in to bust the gang. Its a great story with great color. 4 1/2 stars, they just don't make films like this anymore.
  • mjgildea
    November 2, 2006
    mjgildea
    Even though the director is amazing, this movie could double for a torture device were it not for the beautiful Japanese setting.
  • gator681
    June 18, 2006
    gator681
    In "House of Bamboo", ex-soldier Eddie Spannier(Robert Stack) arrives in Japan looking for a friend of a his who had promised him work. His widow, Mariko(Shirley Yamaguchi), informs him that he was shot by his cohorts during a robbery. Spannier wants answers but the only clue h... read moreas to go on is a mention of pachinko parlors in a letter. So, he starts shaking them down for protection money until he comes across a gang led by Sandy Dawson(Robert Ryan).

    "House of Bamboo" works better as a travelogue(due primarily to its excellent location shooting in Tokyo and Yokohama) than as a mystery. It could also be seen as a commentary on imperialism in that it is about a gang of American armed criminals preying on Japan(not to mention these same men's less than kind treatment of Japanese women) but it is also important to note that the Americans and Japanese work together to try to bring them down. Robert Stack is as interesting to watch as paint dry but Robert Ryan does a very cool job playing a master criminal.
  • thirdway821
    October 5, 2010
    thirdway821
    A commercial picture directed by Sam Fuller. "House of Bamboo" reminds me a bit of "The Departed" but on a lighter scale(probably for commercial reasons). I admire the locations, Robert Stack as the undercover agent, Shirley Yamaguchi as the "Kimono girl" and Robert Ryan as the g... read moreangster kingpin.

    Fuller is quite good with camera movement, the use of unexpected violence, and even taboo themes that deals with interracial. What did bother me was the visual idea of shooting on Cinemascope(for 3D effects), also felt the characters aren't really flushed out as they should have been, and the picture's climax also let me down. There should have been a better way to end the picture instead of using cheap violence.
  • irishlass25
    July 16, 2009
    irishlass25
    Samuel Fuller is an odd nut to crack. Part all-american tough guy, part closeted liberal, part auteur , and part populist. His films are personal, and rough, and silly, and sloppy, and wonderful, and different from everybody else working in Hollywood. Pickup on South Street, Whit... read moree Dog, The Big Red One, Naked Kiss, Shock Corridor are all films I know by heart and to a certain extent worship.

    House of Bamboo is not one of his greatest films, but one that you can tell was personal for the director. On the surface it's just another cops Vs. Gangster film, albit one set in the exotic milieu of post-war Tokyo. Buty underneath is a suprisingly smart, sometimes even sensitive(the interracial romance is actally touching, and the Japanese are presented with proper respect) movie.

    It is not Fuller's masterpiece, but it's still better than so many other movies from other directors.
  • billfenner1967
    February 13, 2009
    billfenner1967
    A deeper-than-it-appears film set in post-war Japan, in the noir tradition where the fine line between the good guys and bad guys is very much blurred. The astute viewer will also pick up on some suggested meanings in the multi-layered screenplay. Though historians will make more... read more mention of the remarkable photography and use of actual locations in and around Tokyo. This makes the film an important historical document as it provides a seldom captured glimpse of what Japan and its people looked like in those years of rebuilding. As anyone who has been to Tokyo especially will tell you, the city is nothing like it was back then and seeing this film is a precious gem.

View All House of Bamboo Reviews

Critic Reviews

Variety Staff
March 26, 2009
Variety Staff, Variety

Novelty of scene and a warm, believable performance by Japanese star Shirley Yamaguchi are two of the better values in the production. Full Review

Bosley Crowther
March 25, 2006
Bosley Crowther, New York Times

A lean, hard-boiled, sharp detective thriller with just a light touch of Madame Butterfly. Full Review

Don Druker
May 14, 2003
Don Druker, Chicago Reader

One of Samuel Fuller's best, a tough, sometimes nasty, but always exciting 1955 effort in 'Scope and color that unites three of his favorite topics: military comradeship, the underworld, and the Far E... Full Review

April 17, 2012
TV Guide's Movie Guide

Beautifully photographed and well-written. Full Review

David Fear
August 24, 2011
David Fear, Time Out New York

A masterpiece that pinpoints the sublime in Fuller's sensationalism and earns every inch of its widescreen real estate. Full Review

February 9, 2006
Time Out

House of Bamboo offers all Fuller's key themes and motifs in a characteristic thriller form: dual identities, divided loyalties, racial tensions, life (and cinema) as war. Full Review

Jeffrey M. Anderson
July 25, 2005
Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid

Fuller's masterful use of natural locations within the Cinemascope frame drives the film, especially the climactic shoot-out on a giant, spinning globe at a carnival. Full Review

David Nusair
July 23, 2005
David Nusair, Reel Film Reviews

...the positives here outweigh the negatives... Full Review

Chris Barsanti
June 9, 2005
Chris Barsanti, Filmcritic.com

The limits of the lengths to which dazzling camerawork and curled-lip noir bravado can make up for thoroughly ham-fisted dialogue are tested in Sam Fuller's gangster picture Full Review

Keith Uhlich
June 6, 2005
Keith Uhlich, Slant Magazine

House of Bamboo has some of the most stunning examples of widescreen photography in the history of cinema. Full Review

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