Description:

Nihon boryoku-dan: Kumicho - This rarely seen Yakuza film by the great Japanese master of the genre may very well rank among the top gangster films of the 60's.

This is a story of Yakuza rivalry on a big scale with brazen violence showing just how brutal and serious they are about the territories they control. These gangs are big, hard and extremely violent. There's never anything glamorous about being a member of Yakuza and here everyone, including the topmost people, are fair game.

Coming out of jail and hoping for a quiet life, a Yokohama Yakuza has to take the lead of his gang after the death of their boss. His small group is is caught in a crossfire between a big Yakuza group from Osaka at war with the Tokyo alliance for the control of the city. He tries to keep to the old Yakuza code but he is no match for the new thugs who live and fight without honor.

Don't watch this one for Bunta Sugawara, the man to watch here is Wakayama Tomisaburo, he's out of control as the heroin shooting violent leader of an anarchistic Hawaiian-shirt wearing gang and his character really steals the show. Another tour de force by the great director Fukasaku Kinji. Fans of his work will love it.

DIRECTED BY: KINJI FUKASAKU

STARRING: SUGAWARA BUNTA, WAKAYAMA TOMISABURO

1969 - JAPANESE with OPTIONAL ENGLISH SUBTITLES - COLOR - 16:9 ANAMORPHIC WIDESCREEN - 97 MINUTES