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.
