Man with a Shotgun, sometimes referred to with the definite article as The Man with a Shotgun, is a 1961 film by Seijun Suzuki.
It is often called a "Japanese western", and except for the fact that it's set in Japan it does pretty much hit the usual Western tropes. Watari, the epoymous man with a shotgun, comes to a mountainous region on foot, looking to hunt game. There's a lumber mill in town, and the mill boss, Mr. Nishioka, has for some reason—it is eventually revealed—staffed the place with violent gangsters. The gangsters are rampaging around the town at will, and the one law enforcement official in the area, Sheriff Okamura, is ineffectual and hopelessly outnumbered. In fact, the local goons nearly gang-rape Okamura's sister Setsuko, before Watari rescues her.
Eventually the thugs throw a knife into Sheriff Okamura and he is hospitalized. Predictably, Watari volunteers to be the new sheriff. The local business owners accept, even Nishioka, who says his own men have gotten out of control. It soon becomes clear that Watari has his own hidden motives for being there, and taking the job.
Other characters include Masa, a thug who also volunteers to be sheriff but is pushed aside by Watari, and the unnamed madam of the Bad Guy Bar, who is Nishioka's mistress but takes a shine to Watari.
Tropes:
- Bad Guy Bar: The bar that the unnamed madam runs, which is an obvious wretched hive of scum and villainy. It seems that the criminals of the town are the only clientele. When Setsuko is dragged into the bar because her father owes a debt to one of the goons, they descend on her like a pack of piranhas and are obviously about to gang-rape her when Watari steps in.
- Betty and Veronica: Setsuko and the unnamed madam of the bar. Setsuko is sweet and innocent, and when she finds out the nature of Watari's revenge plot she begs him to stop and not make himself a murderer. The bar madam is in crime up to her neck, and is obviously sexually attracted to Watari, at one point offering to share a crucial bit of information if only he'll take her into his arms first.
- Brandishment Bluff: Watari, temporarily without his shotgun, wins a face-off with Masa by pulling a handgun instead. It turns out to be a toy gun, which Watari tosses in a bin of toy guns at the store.
- Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Okamura is firing a rifle with a scope and still manages to completely miss Watari several times as Watari is wading across a river.
- Jump Cut: Part of Seijun Suzuki's style, seen several times. Early in the film Watari is traipsing through the forest when he sees three thugs. There's an immediate cut to Watari in the middle of a fight with said thugs.
- Match Cut: There's a cut from Nishioka the mill boss smoking a cigarette, to Tora, one of the chief goons, doing the same in a different location.
- New Old West: The film is set in the modern day, but hits the standard beats of a western, with the mysterious drifter becoming sheriff and facing off against a gang of thugs.
- Off-into-the-Distance Ending: The film ends with Watari, having heeded Setsuko's pleas and gotten the three murderers arrested rather than killing them, riding away in a truck. Setsuko, after a brief hesitation, runs after him.
- Punch! Punch! Punch! Uh Oh...: Three goons in the forest attack Watari, and knock him out in a fist fight, or so they think. They are taken aback when he gets up. He proceeds to knock out one and send the other two running.
- The Reveal
- Watari is not a hunter on the mountain looking for game. His wife was raped and murdered by some of the criminals on the mountain, and he is there to find and kill them.
- Why does Nishioka staff his business, a lumber mill, with violent criminals? Because the lumber mill is a front. He has a hidden field of opium poppies and he is selling opium to a drug syndicate.
- A Round of Drinks for the House: Shortly after taking the job of sheriff, Watari temporarily pacifies the goons in the Bad Guy Bar by buying them all drinks.
- "Shut Up!" Gunshot: Watari makes his more effective, getting the attention of the brawling gangsters by shooting out a light in the ceiling.
- Undercover Cop Reveal: Masa, who got himself made Nishioka's chief enforcer, reveals himself at the end as an undercover cop. He arrests Mr. Kim, the drug boss who was about to buy Nishioka's opium.
