Blood for Blood is a yakuza movie remarkable primarily for Jo Shishido’s sidesburns and Hajime Kaburagi’s music score. Shishido plays the standard yakuza #2 just released from prison to find his old gang under pressure both from traditional enemies and from new, larger Tokyo gangs as well. After a while, there are so many different … Continue reading Blood for Blood / Bloody Feud / Ryuketsu no koso (1971)
Hajime Kaburagi
Blackmail is my Life / Business // Kyokatsu koso waga jinsei (1968)
Blackmail is My Life gives us an early look at Kinji Fukasaku in the kinetic, some might say frenetic, mode of his seventies yakuza pictures. At least for the first two-thirds of the movie, its playful energy and unpredictable stylistic choices suggests a Richard Lester movie with the Beatles playing gangsters, assuming of course that … Continue reading Blackmail is my Life / Business // Kyokatsu koso waga jinsei (1968)
Velvet Hustler / Like a Shooting Star / Kurenai no nagareboshi (1967)
The Velvet Hustler is Goro (Tetsuya Watari), a young yakuza who neither is a hustler nor wears velvet, but then the Japanese title was really something along the lines of the alternate title, Like a Shooting Star. Goro is first seen whistling as he steals a red convertible, follows a businessman/yakuza, and shoots him before … Continue reading Velvet Hustler / Like a Shooting Star / Kurenai no nagareboshi (1967)
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