The Hoodlum Priest Films
Hooldlum Priest
Year: 1967
Director: Yasuda
Kimiyoshi
Rating: 6.0
Shintaro Katsu sheds his character of Zatoichi to take on another wandering
rascal. The Hoodlum Priest series only lasted for two films and is not to
be confused with his series titled the Hoodlum Soldier. The Priest has a
few similarities to Zatoichi - they like to gamble and frolic with the occasional
woman of the night, they clean up a town and in the end they move on - but
Zatoichi has a set of high morals and a weakness in helping the underdog
in trouble - but the Priest Ryuzen has no such compulsions or ethics. It
is all about him and his needs. At one point he does say "If I can make money
and by doing so help people then that is ok". But he is always looking for
an angle, a way to bed a woman that is pretty much rape by any definition,
a way to make money illegally. He is in other words a Hoodlum! And seemingly
a priest though that seems open to question. This difference between him
and Zatoichi may be why Zatoichi lasted for decades and became an iconic
series while this one lasted for two films. There is only so much time you
want to spend with him. But what time you spend is fairly entertaining.
Ryuzen comes across a nearly deserted temple with only an old harmless man
living there in squalor and decides to move in. He looks like a tramp with
hair that could double for a rats nest and a dirty face that hasn't seen
soap and water for a while. But he has plans once he gets the lay of the
nearby town. He turns the temple into a gambling parlor and a short time
hotel in which men can peek at the goings-on inside. For a price. This doesn't
set so well with the local Yakuza who controls the Red Light District and
realizes he is losing money to this fly by night operation. He sends a samurai
to warn Ryuzen, then the law and then finally his men. Ryuzen doesn't seem
to take to the sword but is pretty good with a knife, cudgel and judo. Still
it is hard to take to a man who rapes a woman who comes looking for help
and then later tells her "Don't worry. I never sleep with a woman more than
once". Not exactly our lovable Zatoichi.
It is directed by Kimiyoshi Yasuda, who had directed a few of the Zatoichi
films as well as a few of the Sleepy Eyes of Death samurai series with Raizô
Ichikawa. As two of the women in the film are Ogawa Mayumi as Otatsu, the
prostitute with a heart of cold hard cash and Kubo Naoko as the mistress
of the Yakuza head who sidetracks Ryuzen with a glimpse of enough thigh that
he gives up wrecking the place and beds her instead. By force.
Hooldlum Priest and the Gold Mint
Year: 1968
Director: Ikehiro
Kazuo
Rating: 5.5
The Hoodlum Priest Ryuzen returns in the second and last film of the short
series. This one feels like it was done in a hurry and a bit on the cheap
coming in at only 79 minutes. As a note, the Hoodlum Priest films have nothing
to do with the Wicked Priest series of films that star Shintaro Katsu's brother,
Tomisaburo Wakayama, of Lone Wolf and Cub fame. I wonder if anyone has ever
tried to count the number of people these two brothers killed in their films.
You would need a super computer. Ryuzen's bad behavior is toned down a bit
in this second film - he rapes no women - but in the first scene he does
peep as oyster women change their clothes - and later peeps as a woman takes
a bath. So he hasn't turned into a saint exactly and in fact he spends the
film trying to connive people out of their money - but those that deserve
it.
A seeming conspiracy is going on that raises Ryuzen's greedy antennae. The
brother of the recently departed head of the Mint is meeting up with the
boss of the biggest yakuza gang in Edo and a corrupt head of a temple. This
intrigues Ryuzen and he begins to hang around trying to pick up information
but instead picks up the mistress of the Yakuza head for a little touch and
tickle while the boss is away. Later he comes across a woman named Otsuya,
flung across a rock in the sea with no memory of who she is or how she got
there. He finds a note on her that implies that she is the illegal child
of the former head of the Mint and thus the rightful heir. The brother is
sending bad guys to kill her. But there is more here than seems apparent
and Ryuzen sees an opportunity to make a bundle by helping her get to Edo.
He of course has to fight off attackers along the way.
There is not a lot of zing to the film - and there seems to be no real effort
to create period settings - most of it taking place in inn rooms, outside
and in compounds. Basic sets in every period film. Shintaro again turns to
a familiar director that he must have been comfortable with - Kazuo Ikehiro
- who like the previous director helmed a few of the Zatoichi films and the
Sleepy Eyes of Death films. Kayo Matsuo who plays Otsuya was in her share
of popular films - a Lone Wolf and Cub film, Sleepy Eyes of Death and five
Seijun Suzuki films.
