Rusty Knife is a 1958 action

Action film

Action film is a film genre where one or more heroes is thrust into a series of challenges that require physical feats, extended fights and frenetic chases...

 Japanese film

Cinema of Japan

The has a history that spans more than 100 years. Japan has one of the oldest and largest film industries in the world – as of 2009 the fourth largest by number of feature films produced. Movies have been produced in Japan since 1897, when the first foreign cameramen arrived...

 directed by Toshio Masuda

Toshio Masuda

is a Japanese film director. He developed a reputation as a consistent box office hit-maker. Over the course of five decades, 16 of his films made the yearly top ten lists at the Japanese box office—a second place record in the industry. Between 1958 and 1968 he directed 52 films for the Nikkatsu...

. ""Rusty Knife"" was part of the Nikkatsu film studio's wave of Japanese noir films, in order to compete with popular American and French films in Japanese box offices. This film was made available in North America when Janus Films released a special set of Nikkatsu Noir films as part of the Criterion Collection

The Criterion Collection

The Criterion Collection is a video-distribution company selling "important classic and contemporary films" to film aficionados. The Criterion series is noted for helping to standardize the letterbox format for home video, bonus features, and special editions...

. These films include A Colt Is My Passport

A Colt Is My Passport

is a 1967 Japanese yakuza film directed by Takashi Nomura for the Nikkatsu Corporation.-Synopsis:It stars Joe Shishido as a hitman who, along with his sidekick played by Jerry Fujio, is hired by the yakuza to eliminate a rival gang's boss. The two are captured after the job, escape and are waylaid...

, Take Aim at the Police Van

Take Aim at the Police Van

Take Aim at the Police Van is a 1960 action Japanese film directed by Seijun Suzuki, part of the Nikkatsu film studio's wave of Japanese noir films, made to compete with popular American and French films in Japanese box offices.This film was made available in North America when Janus Films...

, and I Am Waiting.

Cast

• Yujiro Ishihara
  Yujiro Ishihara
  was a Japanese actor and singer born in Kobe. His elder brother, Shintaro Ishihara, is an author, politician, and the current Governor of Tokyo. Yujiro debuted in 1956 in "Season of the Sun," based on a novel written by his brother...
  
  
• Mie Kitahara
• Shoji Yasui
• Joe Shishido
• Akira Kobayashi
• Masao Shimizu
• Noaki Sugiura
• Toshio Takahara

Plot

The argument of the film concerns Yukihiko Tachibana (Yujiro Ishihara), an ex-convict trying to begin a life after he is released from prison. Unable to forget the rape and death of his girlfriend, he calls for revenge against a crime syndicate, while resisting the urge to kill again. Meanwhile, the district attorney, Prosecutor Karita (Shoji Yasui) and his men try to build a case against a local crime syndicate.