From the moment the Toho
Scope logo is emblazoned on the screen like a giant neon calling card from
the past and the piano begins to bang out a slow mournful note, I was all
a tingle with this one. Full of style and angst among the Yakuza and their
women. In the opening scene a man whose face is not shown enters an office
late at night and shoots the person within. Outside walking home after putting
in her hours as a young waitress at a small dingy restaurant is Kana (Yoriko
Hoshi) who hears the shots and hides. A man comes rushing out and jumps into
a big green Chevrolet. Suddenly the lights catch the driver and Kana wide-eyed
and terrified sees him. The car drives away. We never find out who the victim
was. It doesn't matter. Someone the Yakuza needed dead. Business. But this
sets the film in motion.
There is a lot of cool here. Big American cars from when they ruled the
earth, nightclubs of slow dancing couples, pop acts with Elvis styled crooners,
a woman singing " high teen queen loves the Ginza" as fans sing along, slick
tailored suits and a casino with a checkerboard floor and only a roulette
wheel parked in the middle. It's Tokyo babe where the neon lights go on all
night. And a Yakuza soldier sings in a high falsetto to himself "Just like
Udon noodles but it is not Udon. Just like Soba noodles but it is not Soba".
He belongs to the Yokomitsu Trading Co. Respectable name for a criminal enterprise
with their fingers in a lot of places. Part of the pleasure of this film is
just seeing how they go about their everyday business. The Boss will give
out assignments - you go shake down so and so, you go teach the Americans
a lesson, you go beat up somebody. Just another day at work.
For Ryuta (Tsuruta Koji) is his immaculately neat suit and tie and well
coiffed hair this is what he expects. He is off to work. Well educated and
looking like any well-heeled salaryman, he is a killer when called upon.
At one point when Ryuta is hesitating, the Boss says "It is out of character
for you to show mercy". But Ryuta is the protagonist of the film as his standing
in the Yakuza is questioned, his loyalty suspected, his placid coolness melting.
His world begins to fall apart and he rushes around trying to keep it all
together. A young son who is crippled, a brother who has stepped out of line
with the gang and a cold killer sticking with him like glue waiting for the
order.
His brother Mineo (Akira Takarada) has decided he has had enough of the
Yakuza life and wants to become a professional singer and is appearing at
a club where the girls swoon for him. But you don't walk away from the Yakuza
especially if you were the driver of that getaway car and there is a witness.
What I liked about this gang is their patience - they know the girl is a
witness and know who she is and where she works - but have made no attempt
to silence her for the last six months. Just keep Mineo hidden till enough
time passes but he is out there singing on stage. Ryuta is told to get him
to stop but he won't and in the Yakuza world that can only lead to one thing.
There are other numerous threads that director Kihachi Okamoto tries to
fold into this - the son and his pretty therapist, a tough Yakuza woman who
clearly has something for Ryuta that he never gives back as she is the girlfriend
of the Boss, a man who owns a car repair shop (played surprisingly by Toshirô
Mifune in a secondary role), the brother's pregnant girlfriend, the witness
and her life, the killer Goro, the American who opens the casino and has to
be shown a lesson, Ryuta's equally cool friend Sudo (Akihiko Hirata) who runs
a club for the gang. Lots of moving parts. And he has to stop the Yakuza from
killing his brother. And maybe himself. It is a hell of a day.
This is my introduction to Okamoto and though this seems to be held in low
regard by many for its messy plot, Hollywood influences and typical Ninkyo
Eiga formula of the chivalrous troubled gang member, it is so awash with things
I like that I am very forgiving. The camera angles are great, his transitions
from one scene to another are abrupt and startling at times, the color schemes
are wonderful and he manages to humanize all these minor characters with
a few brush stokes. Even the two punks in the club. I look forward to seeing
his films that are considered classics - The Sword of Doom, Samurai Assassin,
The Age of Assassins and Kill!. All of which I fortunately have. I
notice that Mickey Curtis is in the credits though I am not sure who he was.
One of the American gangsters? I know of him from films he was in decades
later when he was much older. But he was a legend of sorts in Japan. Born
in Japan to English-Japanese parents, he became a big rockabilly star in
Japan with his group Mickey Curtis & the Samurai. He also shows up in
small roles in a lot of films - Kamikaze Taxi, Bounce Ko Gals and Swallowtail
Butterfly.
