[3][4][5][6][1][7][8] Shun Muraki is a low-level blackmailer who specializes in extorting money from prosperous Tokyo businessmen by threatening to reveal their crimes and indiscretions.

Newspaper reporter Hiroshi Miyake and Goro Okunaga, an old acquaintance of Shun, believe that the attack was planned by Shinzo Mizuno to send a warning.

Shun goes to the place designated for the exchange in front of the National Theatre at 4:00 p.m. but notices a newspaper headline that Endo was arrested for forgery and gives up in frustration.

[9] Fukasaku originally shot the final death scene in Ginza himself, hidden in a car in order to capture real reactions from the public.

But the footage lacked drama and intimacy, and the scene was re-shot with Hiroki Matsukata purposefully staggering towards the crowds to unsuccessfully entice a reaction.

[9] John Berra writes that Fukasaku "takes his directorial inspiration from the French New Wave" and that the film's "third act was reportedly inspired by real-life real-estate swindles that involved Kakuei Tanaka, who was then the Finance Minister of Japan, and would later become the nation's Prime Minister, and the episodic structure of the film serves to illustrate how greedy even small-time operators were becoming in an era of economic growth.

"[10] Berra also identifies a tribute to Seijun Suzuki's cult classic Tokyo Drifter (1966), noting that the film's characters whistle its theme song.

Macias wrote that Matsukata's performance as Shun helped lay the foundation for Fukasaku's protagonists to come; equal parts lovable and amoral, and "destined for oblivion.

"[9] Glenn Erickson for DVD Talk wrote that Blackmail Is My Life "channels the spirit of rebellious anarchy seen in Jean-Luc Godard, filtered through America's Bonnie & Clyde.

Club wrote that "An excess of style takes some of the coherency and sting out of Blackmail, which is sometimes guilty of appropriating Godard-esque tricks for cool's sake."