Joe Shishido is good at it, and it’s all over. A romanticized gangster drama.
Joe Shishido at the peak of his acting career (the same year was marked by the sensational Branded to Kill) as the rebellious henchman of a cruel boss of one of the yakuza gangs.
The plot is simple. The boss orders Shishido’s hero to kill his beloved woman and he dutifully obeys the order. The younger brother of the hero is a rising star of Japanese boxing training in a sports club under the cover of a gang. Young and hot, he takes to heart the injustice to his brother, and therefore throws claims and insults in the face of the boss. Such audacity in the yakuza environment cannot go unpunished, bandits disfigure the boy’s fingers – be kind to forget about the dream of a sports career in boxing. The hero Shishido leaves the gang and begins a bloody irreconcilable fight with his now former boss.
From the point of view of today, the plot twists and modes of action of both sides of the conflict, in general, look quite naive.
However, the main advantages of the film are two important points. The first, a wonderful cast of actors, decorated, literally, all the roles, even secondary. And the second, thorough selection of scenery and places for field shooting, as well as aesthetically thought-out plans that pleased the eye throughout the action of this story.
In fact, the film is quite close to the genre of late noir, but it has a pronounced specificity tied to the peculiarities of the Japanese mentality, and if the viewer does not immediately startle, enjoying the viewing, although not guaranteed, is still quite likely.