It is an unimpeachable fact that art begets other art – creativity cannot emerge out of pure imagination, and every work of art that we encounter was inspired by another, even if subconsciously. To exemplify this, we can draw our attention to what is supposedly a relatively linear process in terms of the creation of the ultraviolent gangster genre. If we take two incredibly influential filmmakers like Jim Jarmusch and Quentin Tarantino (who established a strong foundation for independent cinema in the 1980s and 1990s, respectively), we can find a direct through-line to the work of people like Seijun Suzuki and Jean-Luc Godard, two wildly different filmmakers who somehow became a source of considerable inspiration. While this may seem like a lengthy prologue to a film that does not feature the participation of any of these artists, it makes sense when you look at the fact that No Grave for Us (Japanese: 俺達に墓はない) is quite possibly the missing link that unites all these artists, with Yukihiro Sawada’s fascinating character study of a pair of ordinary criminals who find themselves in an increasingly hostile situations and precarious positions being inspired by the great works of French and Japanese cinema in prior decades, and would go on to influence others, especially in how a film like Branded to Kill had to move through this one to become Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai – the effortlessly cool demonstration of violence and moral debauchery, coupled with an abundance of darkly satirical humour, aids in understanding why this is such a vital work of Japanese cinema, and a truly transcendent work that has impacted cinema in more ways than we’d imagine.

From its first moments, we can tell that No Grave for Us is not going to adhere to the very formal, stoic approach that most mainstream Japanese cinema was built upon. The key to understanding how this film contributed to the changing perceptions of global cinema is that we need to step away from the film itself, and look at the general milieux – it was made by a team of filmmakers dedicated to challenging conventions, and while this film itself is not necessarily revolutionary on its own, it occupies a vital part of the culture, one that is constructed around subversion. We draw our attention back to Suzuki and Godard, whose work is definitely influential, but were far from traditional – and No Grave for Us is just as gleefully incomprehensible, leaping between broad strokes of logic to produce something that is both entertaining and slightly sinister. There is virtue in art that is not designed to make sense or provide all the answers, since it creates a scenario where we are dealing with essentially fluent nonsense, a series of disjointed scenes that don’t make sense on their own, but when connected by a thin membrane of rational narrative thought, come to have a very peculiar but still captivating meaning. There isn’t much of a plot behind this film, but it doesn’t feel any less immersive than a more story-driven project, which is a credit to Sawada and his remarkable instincts for constructing something that is simultaneously incredulous to logic, but also deeply captivating, a combination that is far from each to achieve without the right amount of dedication and willingness to experiment, a hallmark of this kind of revolutionary filmmaking we saw emerging around this time in Japan, and which would go on to be highly influential.

No Grave for Us is a remarkably simple film, with its economic approach to filmmaking being one of its greatest strengths. Here we are confronted with characters who are not particularly realistic, but who serve a vital function in the overall proceedings of a film that is much more driven by atmosphere than it is by a specific storyline. From its introductory moments to the climactic conclusion, we find ourselves on a wild ride into the underbelly of the Japanese crime world, rendered in extraordinary detail by a director whose ability to create unforgettable imagery through nothing but the most straightforward elements is beyond admirable. We have to give credit to Sawada for the extent to which he managed to tell this story without needing to rely on too many excessive effects or lavish details, instead focusing on the grittier, more earthly side of the story, which is reflected in every frame of the film. It’s almost akin to guerrilla filmmaking, with the do-it-yourself aesthetic being very clear in how the director is finding the balance between the broader concepts embedded in his script and the eventual manifestation of it on screen, which is quite difficult when dealing with something in which the plot is almost secondary to the imagery, rather than the other way around, which is far more traditional. It was produced by a studio (so there was some degree of financial backing behind it), but the most impactful details come about when we see behind the veneer and see the moving parts that went into the creation of the film, which is subtle but certainly fascinating, proving to be one of the great merits of a project formed from pure ambition more than anything else.

Even a surface-level knowledge of Japanese cinema during this period will lend itself to understanding the legacy of Yūsaku Matsuda, who is considered one of the most influential actors to hail from the country, and someone who has developed into a cultural icon, remaining in such a position decades after his untimely death. The specific qualities that made Matsuda such an iconoclastic actor are that he did not fit into any preconceived category for what such an actor should be – he was devastatingly handsome, but was more aligned with playing despicable actors, and in a way where their moral shortcomings were not only clear, but the entire driving force behind the narrative. No Grave for Us is one of the most potent examples of this trend – his characterisation is absolutely staggering, and his ability to find a way to still give a fantastic performance through the wall-to-wall pandemonium is a credit to his remarkable skillfulness. No Grave for Us may not be his signature role, but it does contain many of the elements that made him such a fascinating actor, whether it be his ability to be both aloof and charismatic, or the way he navigates slightly more challenging material while elevating his performance above it (rather than being concealed beneath the more chaotic elements), and it is perfectly understandable why he would develop into one of the more interesting actors of his generation, and someone whose sensibilities matched so closely with those of the director, their frequent collaborations (in which they worked together over a dozen times) over the years proving that they were capable of helping realize the other’s artistic ambitions in a way that was always effective and interesting.

No Grave for Us is undeniably an extraordinarily unpolished film, and it is definitive of the kind of rough-around-the-edges filmmaking that comes about when a director is not blessed with an exorbitant budget or the most widespread of resources. However, this is precisely where the charm of such a film is found, since we are witnessing something formed from the efforts of an audacious young director who may not be well-known to those without an affinity for this kind of off-the-wall crime comedy produced in Japan, but certainly influenced generations of filmmakers to create stories on their own terms. Whether we view it as a wildly entertaining crime thriller that has an abundance of humour and violence, or as a deeper social indictment that points towards the darker side of Japanese society in the decades following the end of the Second World War, it is clear that this is a deeply fascinating film that evokes a range of complex reactions. However one chooses to approach the film, it all leads back to the same fact that there is a lot of value in carefully curated madness, as long as there is something onto which the viewer can grasp while making our way through the world. Wickedly funny, undeniably subversive and experimental in all the ways that we may expect from a postmodern satire on the broken promises of a supposedly perfect but deeply fragmented system, No Grave for Us is a stunning achievement and a worthy entry into a growing canon of crime dramas that are as much about the heist as they are about the people behind them.