Tokyo in the late 1950s. Eikichi, a car salesman, is baffled by the new business practices born with the Americanization of society. Near the ruins, he is approached by one of his younger competitors, false charity, who asked him to partner with him to mount insurance fraud. Eikichi will not resist the temptation of easy money …Read More »
Akira Kobayashi
-
Kô Nakahira – Koroshita no wa dare da AKA Who Is the True Murderer? (1957)
1951-1960AsianDramaJapanKô Nakahira -
Kinji Fukasaku – Jingi naki tatakai: Chojo sakusen AKA The Yakuza Papers 4: Police Tactics (1974)
1971-1980CrimeJapanKinji FukasakuThrillerSynopsis:
As Japan gears up for the 1964 Olympic games, the cops start to crack down under pressure from the public and the press, adding a new dimension in the war for power among the yakuza families of Hiroshima. Takeda (Akira Kobayashi) tries to keep a lid on things, but hotheaded underlings create chaos, with one boss whacked in neutral territory and the craven boss, Uchimoto, informing on an assassination attempt by his own minions. While the police round up hundreds of yakuza foot soldiers, Shozo Hirono (Bunta Sugawara) plots to finally take out longtime nemesis, boss Yamamori.Read More » -
Kinji Fukasaku – Jingi naki tatakai: Dairi sensô AKA The Yakuza Papers, Vol. 3: Proxy War (1973)
1971-1980CrimeJapanKinji FukasakuThrillerSynopsis:
The successor to Hiroshima’s most powerful yakuza family, the Muraokas, is whacked in broad daylight on a busy city street. What unfolds is a yakuza succession crisis, as the weaseley Uchimoto (Takeshi Kato) dithers and the slimy, backstabbing boss Yamamori steps in as the Muraoka’s new boss. Bunta Sugawara’s would-be independent yakuza, Shozo Hirono, is caught in the middle, having to play powerbroker. But the opposing factions seek support from powerful families in Kobe, making all out war inevitable.Read More » -
Seijun Suzuki – Oretachi no chi ga yurusanai aka Our Blood Will Not Forgive (1964)
1961-1970AsianClassicsJapanSeijun SuzukiThough Suzuki created it in the midst of his stylistic breakthrough, «Our Blood Will Not Forgive» has never received the same amount of attention as other films he made around the same time. Nikkatsu icons Hideki Takahashi and Akira Kobayashi star as brothers — one a gangster, the other an ad man — who unite to avenge their yakuza father’s death eighteen years before. The film features a bold use of colour; an absurdist concluding gunfight; and, in one memorable scene, an impressively illogical use of rear projection as the brothers argue in a car while ocean waves rage around them.Read More »
-
Mio Ezaki – Macao no Ryu AKA The Dragon of Macao (1965)
1961-1970ActionCrimeJapanMio EzakiStory
Ryu (Akira Kobayashi) sets foot on the Yokohama port with a suitcase filled with 300 thousand dollars. He was sent by a jewelry company in Hong Kong to retrieve a certain diamond that was stolen from them. The “Himalayan Star” is worth couple hundred million yen and unbeknown to Ryu, it now lays in the hands of Aizu (Jo Shishido), the infamous ”Pirate of the Tokyo Bay.”Read More »