Quote:
Set during the turbulent post-war years, Fukasaku’s original 1975 film charts the rise and fall of real-life gangster Rikio Ishikawa (Tetsuya Watari, Outlaw Gangster VIP). Shot through with the same stark realism and quasi-documentarian approach as Fukasaku’s earlier Battles Without Honor and Humanity, Fukasaku nonetheless breaks new ground through his portrayal of a gangster utterly without honor or ethics, surviving by any means necessary in a world of brutal criminality. Read More »
With the memory of WW II still fresh in Japan in1960, the atmosphere is unsettled as the specter of renewed world nuclear conflict is once again in the air. When a US military aircraft carrying a nuclear weapon inexplicably explodes over a river crossing the line of demarcation between South and North Korea during South Korean military exercises in the area, tension between Cold War antagonists rise to new heights, involving Japan directly because of the American military bases they host. As accusations of blame are traded back and forth, the movie tracks the increasingly volatile situation through the eyes of a group of Japanese high school students and their families, a newspaper reporter and his idealistic nurse girlfriend, and a Christian troubadour and his invalid wife. Read More »
Synopsis:
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 »
Tamiko has been with a geisha house since she was little. Torn between staying in the only world that she knows but also loathes, and a normal life on the outside, Tomiko becomes more and more desperate. Times are also changing, it isn’t easy to keeps the books balanced and there is a new law under debate that may end this way of life for good. Read More »