Black Test Car (Kuro no tesuto ka)

‘In this extremely suspenseful, deeply cynical noir film, the world of automotive espionage serves as Masumura’s starting point for his exploration of the decadence of post-war Japanese corporations and the transformation of imperialist DNA into self-serving production enterprises. Asahina is the ambitious young member of a spy team working for the automotive giant Tiger, which is on the verge of launching its latest luxury sports model, the ‘Pioneer’. Following a series of mishaps, the Tiger Group realises that their bitter rival, Yamato, may have planted a mole within the company. What follows is a breathless game of cat and mouse – peppered with double and triple betrayals as well as unexpected twists – which ultimately brings to light the extent of corruption within the industry.” (Joseph Fahim, Karlovy Vary IFF, July 2024)

“Masumura was known for avoiding close-ups; he described them as a vain means of self-promotion for actors and claimed he had never used them. Yet otherwise, his visual vocabulary was brilliantly flexible and as varied as his stories. (..) Thus the striking, staccato-like scenes in Black Test Car often unfold from an angle that seems to lie just beside or above our heads, as if we were craning our necks, crammed together with the characters in these bare, monotonous rooms.» (Farran Smith Nehme, Criterion, June 2024)