Big Time Gambling Boss

                           
Director: Kôsaku Yamashita
Year: 1968
Rating: 6.5
Obligation upon obligation upon obligation pile up on top of each other in this Yakuza Ninkyo Eiga leaving behind more tears than blood. For a film starring Kôji Tsuruta, Tomisaburô Wakayama and Junko Fuji it is strangely low-key in exploring relationships and loyalty. What ranks higher - loyalty to your code or to your clan or to a friend. It all gets tested here in the political maneuvering within the Tenryu Clan after the Boss has a stroke. Those three stars have been in more Ninkyo Eiga films than you can count but of the ones I have come across they usually explode in action with a finale that spills blood by the buckets. Not here. There is very little action and though the finale is somewhat satisfying, it is not Grand Opera. It is Grand Tragedy. Director Kôsaku Yamashita who has certainly done his share of bloody finales having helmed a number of the Red Peony films seems more interested in delving into the back and forth between different factions of a Clan and how they deal with the nail that sticks out.



It is 1934 and Boss Arakawa has a stroke. He heads a large Clan of smaller Gambling clans that swear loyalty to the Tenryu Clan. Nothing seems to be done by fiat but rather by consensus. They need a new leader. Nakai (Tsuruta) seems the natural replacement as he is respected by everyone - but he opts out saying he still considers himself an outsider who came from Osaka. He nominates his friend and the most senior man Matsuda (Wakayama) but he took responsibility for a crime and has two more years to serve in prison. Some feel they cannot wait that long and so declare that the Boss's son-in-law Ishida (Hiroshi Nawa) the new Boss. All seems fine, but this has inevitable tragedy written all over it.




Matsuda gets paroled early and is infuriated that Ishida was named the head. "It should have been you or me" he tells Nakai. Nakai tries to explain to him that the decision is final and he has to accept it. Be with your wife Hiroe and let things go. His wife being played by Junko Fuji, most of us would be happy to stay home with her. A very sedate role for Junko who does little but look concerned. She has reason to - Matsuda won't let it go - and someone is manipulating him and Ishida to go after one another. Poor Nakai is caught in the middle - going back and forth trying to keep the peace. Wanting to be loyal to the Clan but also to his friend. The film goes for drama with a few surprising emotional smacks in the face. What action there is almost feels like exclamation points. A bit slow for me though it is fascinating to see how every decision is worked through - this Clan doesn't rush to judgement but tries to find compromise till they can't. It seems that both Yukio Mishima and Paul Schrader consider this a masterpiece, so what do I know.