Prison Boss
Year: 1968
Director: Yasuo Furuhata
Rating: 6.0/10
Gokuchu no kaoyaku
As the theme song goes "A man has to do what a man has to do". That is especially
true if he is a Yakuza who follows the code. Not all of them do and in a
territorial dispute between two rival Yakuza factions the Tajima family follows
traditions while the Honma family feels free to break all the rules of honor.
Like so many of these Yakuza films in the 1960s the need to fulfill obligations
is the driving theme that forces the narrative. The Tajima family have won
the right to be the security at a cycling race track and the Honma's want
that concession very badly, Clearly, cycling is a much more popular gambling
sport in Japan than in the USA and there is big money in it. Worth killing
for.
Hayami (Ken Takakura) is sort of a wandering Ronin in the modern world -
a Yakuza but belonging to no family. He is just out of a nine year stretch
for killing Tetsuo the Viper in a street knife fight. But he feels obligated
to the Tajima family because they took him in and tended his wounds under
the tender loving eyes of the Boss's daughter (Junko Fuji) before he turned
himself in. When the Honma family kills one of the Tajima's he feels it is
his duty to get revenge but fails and is back in prison again for a year.
In prison he meets an old childhood friend (Ryo Ikebe) who is now part of
the Honma family and who has orders to kill Hayami.
This is primarily drama with only a few exclamation marks of violence - even
the inevitable final bloodletting is brief - the film is much more concerned
about the Yakuza code, life in prison and the love between Hayami and the
daughter. So it drags a bit at times and the noble Yakuza are almost too
noble to be believable - more like a civic family business. I was also a
bit disappointed with the role given to Fuji Junko, one of my favorite Japanese
actresses.
She and Takakura paired up in loads of Yakuza films usually of the ninkyo
eiga sub-genre - i.e. period chivalry films. In many of these she is an action
figure taking care of herself at the end of a sharp blade and I kept waiting
for her to take justice into her own hands but instead they stuck her with
a flower vase role. Her father was a major producer at the Tōei studios and
helped make her a star but he did her wrong here! This is directed by Yasuo
Furuhata who was to direct Takakura in a number of his Abashiri Prison series
after this film for Toei.
