Take Aim at the Police Van is a 1960 film from Japan directed by Seijun Suzuki.
A sniper perched on a hill by the side of a road...takes aim at a police van. After the van is forced off the road the sniper opens fire, killing two prisoners.
Also on the police van is Tamon, a prison guard. The blame for the ambush is put on his shoulders and he’s given a six-month suspension from work. Out of nothing but irritation, Tamon investigates the incident himself. He soon finds himself in a very sleazy milieu, as his private investigation leads him into a world of strippers, prostitution and flesh-peddling, all of which seems to center around a mysterious woman named Yuko.
Tropes:
- Answer Cut: With Goro dead, Tamon decides to follow the lead of Fuyukichi, one of the prisoners killed in the ambush. He says "Let's hope he had a girlfriend." Cut to a pretty young woman who is soon identified as Fuyukichi's girlfriend Shoko.
- Dramatic Gun Cock: The first shot of the movie shows the sniper, standing on the bluff by the side of the road, dramatically working the bolt action of his rifle.
- Faking the Dead: Goro faked his death so he could avoid police attention.
- Family-Friendly Stripper: Tamon's investigation takes him to a sleazy bikini bar strip club, where the sister of one of the two murdered prisoners works.
- Fan Disservice: Goro's sister Mari comes out of her room topless—and clutching her breast where she has just been shot with an arrow. She falls down and dies.
- High-Heel–Face Turn: Yuko was trying to manage her father's hookers-and-strippers operation with her father in the hospital with illness. She even went so far as to kill Mari to stop her from talking! But she falls in love with Tamon and winds up working with him to take all of the other crooks down.
- Human Traffickers: The whole world Tamon finds himself investigating involves women being used as strippers, and as prostitutes, and in some cases kidnapped and sent into prostitution abroad. Shoko is unnervingly cheerful when she says she was almost sold to Akabori.
- Inner Monologue: Tamon's thoughts sometimes play via inner monologue as he ponders what he's found out and what to do next.
- Karma Houdini: Yuko straight-up murders Mari, shooting her in the chest with an arrow right before Mari can talk to Tamon. But after Yuko falls in love with Tamon and does a High-Heel–Face Turn, this is forgotten about, and they are embracing as the film ends.
- P.O.V. Cam: The opening credits play over an extended POV shot of the police van, its headlights beaming out into the night, as it moves down a two-lane road.
- The Reveal: "Akiba," the unseen kingpin who is behind all these murders and crimes, is actually Yuko's father Hamajimo.
- Son of a Whore: Yuko eventually reveals part of the reason for her attack of conscience: her mother was a prostitute. Hamajimo the flesh-peddler isn't her biological father, but he took her and her mother in.
- Spinning Paper: Newspaper headlines announced that prisoners were "gunned down" and that a prison guard has received a six-month suspension.
- Stocking Filler: A stripper comes into Akabori's office, looking for work. She makes a big show of sitting down on his desk, sticking out her long legs, and adjusting her stockings.
- Visual Title Drop: The first scene has a sniper taking aim at a police van.
- Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Akabori tries to kill Tamon and Yuko with an absurd death trap. He ties them both up in a gasoline truck. He opens the spigot to the gasoline truck, and then sends it rolling down a hill. He then lights the trail of gasoline the truck is leaving as it rolls away, the idea being that eventually the flame will catch up to the truck which will explode. He actually lampshades this, saying "Sure, shooting you would be quicker," but that he wants them to have "a last drive together."
